Evangelion: Biblical Intervention
by Kaworu Naha ga bisa
Summary: The biblical God and Angels do exist, and now, they're determined to set everything right once and for all. In the new conflict, the artifacts of Angels and Demons become the new key factors to the war. A bit of crossover with Kamen Rider and Crysis. ShinjiXRei and KajiXMisato.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I don't own Evangelion, Gainax, and your life, Anno. Also, you should've stop trying to make Gendo as magnificent bastard as possible. I already cringed at the whole stupidity displayed by the whole cast in 3.33/Q just to make him looks so smart in comparison.

This fanfiction's inspired by The Happy Red Planet by Literary Eagle. Only change the sweet ingredient with testosterone and explosions.

Also, if you want to know some things about what will i do in this fic, and how many will be changed, some of these points will outline the main changes:

1\. Rei will become the most badass fighter in the fic. I just read that Anno thought that she's extremely popular in Japan because she's very submissive. Well, what will happen if i did the otherwise? That she's on par with Rambo, John Matrix and the others in term of badassness?

2\. Gendo and SEELE will become laughably crazy. Both of them were projecting Anno a bit, and behind their majestic bastardness aura...they're actually much more pathetic than Shinji and Asuka combined. They want to make the Third Impact because...Keel is sick? Gendo loves Yui too much? Pathetic reasons to cause the end of humanity. Simply pathetic. So i made it that if something completely unpredictable happened on the scenario, they will go out of their mind. Which way? I don't know.

3\. Biblical God and Angels will be more relaxed than their real counterpart as well as less...divine. If you ask why i did this, first, i'm a religious man, so i didn't do it out of spite. I just thought "What if human's emotion also found in God and Angels?". In Bible and Qur'an, Angels don't have complete free will, and God's a very kind being that also capable and will bring a very harsh punishment for the man that disobeyed him for too long after given so many chance to repent, or did a mistake that he didn't repent for it. In short, he's an embodiment of Black and White morality, only he will give lots of patience for humans to fix their morality problems. Here, i just made them more human and not giving harsh punishments in comparison, but still just as strong. So strong, that they cannot interfere with the world directly. There. No chance for Mary Sue to appear.

4\. There will be two kind of cut in this fic. First, is the normal cut. The ingredients are 10% crack, 40% actions, 30% drama, and 20% comedy. Second, is the Literal Divine Comedy version. Just add 75% of more cracks and there you go. What's the difference? Well, let's just say that in the divine comedy version, the whole thing's caused by Lucifer and Michael had a race of the seed of life to the solar system...So, if you don't want any super zanyness, then the normal cut is for you. The zany chapter titles will have "plus 05" in the description.

5\. Godzilla will appear in this fic. No. I don't know when.

So...there you go. You can go back now, Fourth Wall.

Pyuh. That's better. Thanks, man.

No problem, fourth.

Oh , yeah. Here's some handcuffs for your hand *click* it will give us more time to prepare for your awful fanfiction.

You're a funny guy, fourth wall. I like you. *Crack* That's why I'm gonna kill you last…

* * *

" Well, at least explains to me the whole ordeal!"

"Okay, fine. I'll summon Gabriel to explain the whole thing to you. But i warned you, that this's not going to be a pleasant experience at all. But if you insist, then i'll give it to you." God then moved his arm, created a metatron to materialize the Archangel Gabriel, God's personal messenger to Kaji.

"Kaji. I'm Gabriel. Now, you'll learn the truth about the real events behind Second and Third Impact. Please, prepare yourself." Said Gabriel.

Ryoji Kaji. 24 years old. A parental figure for Asuka. An archeologist.

He also the only man with the knowledge about the time loop problem in the world.

The third impact wasn't supposed to happen. And he needs to stop it now. Now, God has pointed him as the new Messiah for the world, and he's going to explain it now.

Of course, he needed some explanations. Some things are just plain not made sense after all. Why did he also became a prophet in the previous loops only to barely changed anything? Why did God and Angels couldn't fix it by themselves? Why did they only gave him invisibility and seed of wisdom and seed of truth when they could've done much more? Why he somehow had memories regarding Godzilla? All of it didn't make sense!

And after he finished his train of thought, the bonding began.

Kaji was awed by the majestic being, the archangel Gabriel himself. The sight of Gabriel alone is more than enough to make him shiver right to the bone. It was majestic. It was beautiful.

It was frightening. It was inhuman. It was going to tear apart his soul. Now, he's understand for why the heaven itself couldn't help humanity directly: They're too powerful for this sinful earth.

His body can only barely held the sensation. His mind's about to lose itself to the out worldly sensation.

I...I can't do it. It's too out worldly to be handled by human being. Please, stop this. Gabriel, I can't do it. I'm weak. I'm too weak. I'm sorry, everyone. I'm sorry, my lord. I'm sorry Misato. I'm sorry Asuka I'm sorry…

Shinji?

Suddenly, Kaji saw the vision of Shinji's suffering. From the beginning of his life to the death of Asuka, and then his transcend into madness as he and EVA-01 become one with Lilith. It was horrifying. It was more traumatizing than anything he ever experienced. And then, Kaji was reminded about the fact that he's the chosen one, and he's the one that will stop all those suffering.

No. I can. I must do it. I must do it for everyone. For Misato. For Ritsuko. For Rei. For Asuka. For Shinji…

Fine. Take me to your place, Gabriel.

TRIIIIIIIIIING

After he conditioned himself to receive any prophecy that's about to be printed on his mind by Gabriel, Kaji found that the majestic feeling from Gabriel has been turned into peaceful aura, and his fear is turned into soothing breeze.

"Good work, Kaji. You managed to become one with my physical being. Don't worry. Your next experience with me and other angels will be much easier than this. Now, are you ready, Kaji?"

"Yes. I'm ready."

"In the year of 2001, after the second impact, Lucifer, or now known as Satan, decided that it's the perfect time to wage the war against heaven. World just lost their hope. It was the time when angels and God were at their weakest by the loss of hope from humanity. God got so weak that he can barely do anything to stop them."

"So that's why God's earlier help is so useless-woah!"

The scenery, which were blank aside from Gabriel and Kaji, now changed into the scenery of the war between hell and heaven.

"Yes, Kaji. Your previous experience as the chosen prophet, were nothing but desperate attempt from the weak, blinded god. And then, the war against the heaven, began. It was a vicious war. None were taken as a prisoner. None that got injured were spared from death. The order from both side was ruthless, but clear: Kill, or be killed."

"The battle could be called as stalemate. Neither side were stronger or weaker than the other. But Hell has a secret weapon that will helped them. They just need to wait."

"The dead sea scrolls." Kaji mumbled.

"Correct, Kaji. The premonition from the dead sea scrolls, which told about the arrival of the angels, are actually prophecies for the release of the fifteen fallen angels, cursed away from their angelic form for the grave sins that they committed. As Lucifer released them, they begun to attack the earth, just like what the premonition said. Slowly, the scarcest form of hope that still exist from the earth…gone, replaced by despair, empowered hell while weakened heaven on the same time."

"The heaven began to lose under pressure and lacks of faith, losing in the war, over and over again. At the end, it was only Gabriel, me, that's left to fight the rest of the hell's force. I managed to killed lots of them, but in the end, they're too much for me." Said Gabriel, as a scene where Lucifer stabbed his heart played. Lucifer's sadistic look when he twisted the blade didn't help to make the look of the situation better at all.

"The victory, however, was still not on their hand, as Michael, the commander of all Angels, was still not there, punished for his lacks of proper judgment toward one angel: Tabris."

"Tabris? You mean, Kaworu? "

"Yes. Kaworu. He was wrongly accused by Michael as a traitor of heaven in an attempt to usurp the throne, punished to spend eternity in human form, together with the other fallen angels. God, who later found the real traitor, punished Michael for his impatience and lacks of proper judgment by locked him into Purgatory, the first ring of hell, stripped off his power until Tabris forgiven him. But the experience from the coldness of Michael, the strongest angel in heaven, has left Tabris incapable of feeling love toward living souls, making him unable to forgive Michael from his mistake, since he didn't understand why he hated him to begin with. Until Shinji came to his life."

"Shinji? You mean, Shinji indirectly saved Michael? "

"Yes. Shinji reminded Tabris, or Kaworu about how it is to not only capable of loving natural beauty and human's culture, but also how to love an individual. He finally realized that the reason for why he loves humanity is not because of their culture, but because he loves everything about them. When he sacrificed himself to save humanity, Tabris wasn't just forgave Shinji. He also forgave Michael from his mistake before."

Kaji's now mesmerized by Gabriel's tale. It was an epic story. It was a tragic one, too, to see God, the creator of everything, powerless to stop all the chaos that his creation created. It was also beautifully presented by the power of Gabriel. Hell's gonna break loose once he knew that it was all a big lie.

"As soon as the hell army went to search for Michael in the Purgatory, Michael gave everything he can to pay for his mistake before, killing as much as he can. At the end of the battle, Michael already lost all of his wing, losing one of his arm, and bled out profusely. But he only needs to kill one more man to stop all of this. It was his arch enemy."

"Lucifer."

"Yes. Lucifer."

"Lucifer and Michael now stand one against one. It was only between both of them, the strongest from respective side, sworn enemies since Michael kicked out Lucifer from heaven. For the glory of light and hope, or for the glory of darkness and despair, that they stand for. Then, they began to run, lunging against each other. It's now or never. Just before they managed to strike their opponent… time stopped. The instrumentality, has just begun."

"My god! Third Impact isn't just caused the instrumentality. It's also the judgment day for everyone."

"No, Kaji. It was worse. With instrumentality, there's no absolution. There's no absolver. There's no one that can be absolved. There's no judgment. There's no judge. There's no one that can be judged. There's no god. Time, outside of LCL, become a moot point."

"…How?"

"With humanity gone, and a new godlike being born, there's no use for the angel. And there's no use for the old god, for that there's no more of his servant, no more of his follower, no more of his creation. They were going to be left just like that, frozen for eternity. Angels were extinct. God, was dead. The only thing that deserves to live now, is the aimless LCL that served to disillusion the whole humanity. Until…"

"Shinji rejected the instrumentality."

"Yes. Shinji rejected the instrumentality, the third impact. With Shinji rejected the instrumentality, hope that was banished entirely, now exists again. The dead God, returned back to live. But he saw that Shinji's still suffering after instrumentality. His heart, was still broken. Everyone who chose to be revived, now wandering aimlessly all over the world, didn't know what to do, and slowly going insane. And then, not wanting humanity to be left in such cruel condition, with the only power that left in his body, God sacrificed himself, rewind time into the date when Second Impact was just happened, and the memory of the pointless war, is now left intact into the mind of Michael and Lucifer, and his order to make you the prophet, was given to me. But unfortunately, God, our lord, was still too weak. It took fifty loops before both Lucifer and Michael fully realized the meaning behind their scattered memory from the previous loop. And as the god now sacrificed himself, and frozen in time, no one really know what's actually going on at that time. All they know, is God's dead, and someone's responsible for it."

"Did something ever changed because of it?"

"Perhaps. But we never know. But the events in order, somehow stayed the same. Perhaps because we're foolish. Perhaps because we're refused to change."

"And after they realized the meaning behind it…"

"Lucifer called for a truce, joining force to support God, concentrated himself and fellow angels to give him the power that was needed to do more than before. And now, you're here, Ryoji Kaji. You'll going to help the humanity to survive from this situation. You're the salvation for this world. You're the new hope for this world. And you must succeed, at all cost."

Now, Kaji wasn't just ready to stop the destruction of the world. He's determined to do it. Gabriel's words, and the events that he just showed, just gave him the performance boost that was needed.

* * *

"So…you're departing, now?"

"Yes. But our lord is still need to speak with you."

"Ah, I see. Thanks for the explanation. Gabriel."

"Anytime, Kaji. Anytime."

"Ah, wait!"

"What is it?" Said Gabriel, just before all of his body vanished.

"If you were the one who revived me, then why don't you summoned me on Tokyo-3 or anywhere else?"

"Um, because, I, uh…weak! Yes, the darkness and injuries must be took a toll on me at that time."

"Ah, I see. Still, I want to know about the whole Godzilla thing. Who summoned him on Geofront and all? I want to thank him a lot for it. Now I'm sure about it, I want to say that the sight of Gendo rubbing Godzilla's…manure to EVA 01 to get a part of the S2 organ is very amusing. If Asuka was here and remembered about it, she'd laugh, too. So, can you tell me about it?"

Gabriel suddenly leaved Kaji, and soon, the voice of the god, returned. At that time, Kaji's still wondering at the sudden loss of Gabriel's grace.

"Kaji. There's a gift from Lucifer."

"A gift? From Lucifer?"

"Yes. Something that will help you on your way. Let's take a look at it. Don't worry. I think we can trust him…for now. Huh...but he still wants to get more power. I guess some don't want to change, after all."

"Huh. He still wanted to take over heaven, right?"

"Yes, he does. When we talk about this thing, he said that he actually learned something else. He said that he now will take it over without, and he now knows how to do it."

"The gift."

"Yes. I don't know what he wants, or what he wants to offer, so…so, embrace yourself."

"Can't you do your omnipotence thing for a while?"

"Can't. I already promised to him that it will be private."

"Huh…You're so obedience, God."

"I'm just keeping my promise."

"Fine."

" You're going to meet the lord of darkness himself now, Kaji. Prepare yourself.

* * *

Kaji's now on his way to meet Lucifer. The experience's the same as before, only now he's more prepared as well as had experienced the whole thing.

Only it was much more…dark. As expected from the ruler of hell, after all.

"Welcome…human."

Human. Not calling by name. Heh. This kind of hospitality has been expected from something like Prince of Darkness himself.

"So, you're the devil himself."

"Yes. And I have several gift…and an offer for you, mortal."

"Let me guess. The offer is something that will give me something, in exchange for a change of power in heaven, right?"

"That is correct."

"Would you be upset, if I told the lord himself about it, so he can do something about you, hmm? Because I don't have any intention to turn my back against Him. Not after what he showed and told me about it."

"I don't think so, mortal. Hehe. We, God and I, already made a deal after all. And why do you think that by having a good faith to God himself will make you rejected my offer immediately? I know an offer that you cannot refuse."

"An offer that I can't refuse?"

"Indeed. But um... let's talk about your gifts, first. I don't want to start our conversation with a distrust, after all, mortal."

A gift. Maybe a two or three. But what is it?

"Embrace yourself."

The scenery, which was nothingness at first, is now changed into a scene where Rei and Shinji has a nice philosophy talk in a train.

Of course, by Evangelion standard, nice philosophy is something that will be far from nice in normal reality. In short, that talk is depressing… and confusing.

Shinji? Rei?

"Why don't you try to understand him?"

"I SAID I DID!" Scream Shinji, clutched his hands to the side of his head in a futile attempt to stop himself from hearing Rei's scratching words.

"So, you're running away from the truth, from the unpleasantness?"

"Why not? What's wrong with running away from the unpleasantness? What's wrong with running away from the truth if it SUCKS?!"

Kaji, standing between both of them. He tried to speak with them, but his attempts were futile. After he took a glance at the window, he realized that there's no reflection from him. Needless to say, he was, well…confused.

"This is Shinji's mind. You're not supposed to be here."

Who…who's there?

"It hurts…it really hurts…"

Kaji changed his focus into Shinji. His arms were covered by fungus-like which resemble Rei's face. He then turned his head back into where Rei was. Now, she was covered with veins.

"Ryoji Kaji…you're not supposed to be here."

SHOW YOURSELF!

"Ka…kaji?"

He can see me now? But how-

Kaji then glanced at the window. There was his reflection.

There was Rei. Standing up against him.

"You're not supposed to be here, Mr. Kaji."

The voice. It came from the right side of me.

Gendo Ikari?

"Kaji…"

That voice. It came from the left side of me.

…Misato?

"You're not supposed to be here."

"You're not supposed to be here. This is Shinji's mind."

"Kaji…"

"Kaji, is that you?"

Four sentences. Played all over him like two pairs of stereo. The veins from Rei's body spread out and confused him. The fungus from Shinji's body also spread out, filled him with guilt. The words from the four individuals slowly filled the remaining emptiness on him, filled him with…

The will to find the truth? Why do I want to find the truth?

I want the truth.

"SHOW ME THE TRUTH!"

He felt that he just poked something. And the object that he poked, suddenly got stabbed. Violently. He can feel the blood, now stained him.

…Blood?

Kaji's right hand held a spear now. It went through Gendo's head.

…What?

He decided to take a glance at Shinji again. He decided to lock his head on his new position.

Shinji's face is now filled with smile. A demented smile. The fungus's faces are now a mixed of Misato's and Rei's faces.

"Kaji. I need you. We need you!"

Someone tapped him from behind. It was kid Asuka. Helding her doll. She was stuttering to get the words came out of her mouth. But at the end, she was no longer hesitated.

"I need you too!"

* * *

Kaji just returned back into his conversation with Satan. Nothing creepy happened to him again. Well, he's still in a train. Just without the previous figures talking about philosophies and other stuffs that creped him out of his mind.

"So…"

"I'll guess that you want to ask what the meaning of all of this, right is?"

"…..Yes."

"Well, to start first, let's ignore all those symbolism bullshit for now and cut it right to the point." Said Lucifer. He knew that Michael will love it. Meanwhile, Kaji's face looks like he's annoyed that he just wasted some time. "Well…. It's all to get you more morally invested in the whole conflicts. To more implanted your mind. And in short, you were just baptized by the sins of those five."

"Baptized by the sins of those five?"

"Indeed. What I want to tell to you, is you need to do this due to your lack of faith before in your life. You're not the believer. You're one of the worshipper of the sun. And not even a good one at that."

"…Are you trying to mock me?"

"Yes." Kaji just tasted his own bluntness. It wasn't nice.

"So, the only way to improve your worthiness of being the prophet, is to awaken the memories of those who were important in your life. And about the power itself, well…it's your ability to turn invincible."

Invincibility.

"….That's all? You mindfucked me with nonsensical philosophy and surreal horror, all so I could turn invisible?"

"It appears that you have a rather low patience, mortal. I must say that I am disappointed with you."

Somehow, Kaji's amused that he was referred by the devil himself as acting like Asuka. He was glad that Asuka's on the trip with her class so she wouldn't need to witness himself nearly torn apart by Gabriel's raw power and forced to saw the devil himself. She would be far more traumatized than she already was with this. Yeah. Somehow, the devil's spat made his heart felt an easiness.

"First of all, your invisibility is more than just turned yourself invisible. Take a look at your right hand."

Kaji did what Satan ordered.

Kaji gasped. His right hand's now held the Spear of Longinus.

"Spear of Longinus? I can summon a miniature of the Spear of Longinus"

"Well, actually, this's just one way to show your power, but basically, you can make an object disappears from everyone else's eyes but yours. Simply put, your own hand's now also functioned as your personal pocket dimension. This pocket dimension can store up to five medium sized weapons, such as sword, assault rifle, and yeah, even rocket launcher."

An invisibility power, and a personal pocket dimension. Hmm. Those ladies will be up to something…good with me. Maybe a surprise dinner, with 'magic' candles and caviar and all. Oh yeah, Misato's going to like it…

"Um…Kaji, I'm still here, and I don't approve the usage of God's gift for mundane utilities."

Kaji got startled. Did he just called me by name out of sudden? Why's he concerned about the abuse of the gift itself? And he also sensed the lacks of…arrogance from him for a while.

"So, um, mortal…" Lucifer realized his acting's a little bit off that time, prompted him to return to his arrogant role. "We'll get into what's actually going on in that train. That, my mortal, is a personification of the psyche of the childrens."

"The psyche of the childrens?"

"Yes. All guilts, despairs, and rage subdued inside them….the train of thought functioned as a catalyst of their emotions. You've been linked with their memories before. Now, you also gained the experiences from their sorrows as well."

"I see. The train of thought's function is to give me another link into their psyche. Since I was not a believer, I can't get a direct approval from the God himself. I need to get my power by who I want to protect, and what I want to get."

"You're a quick learner, Mortal. Let's get into the second gift….before our unrefusable deal that is."

The deal. I forgot about it. Kaji sighed. He knew that the Prince of Darkness has thought about it for so long, and it's not going to be…pretty.

Lucifer then pulled three souls. Three very tormented souls. Their aura were very bleak. If there were flowers on the other side of the fence, they would've rotten away immediately. They're pleading for help. Pleading to be free.

To say that Kaji's frightened by the souls themselves should be an understatement. Despite being lesser creatures than the archangel and Lord of Darkness himself, these souls were harming his psyche more considerably than both of them. It's because the souls themselves were pure of 'everything that's not nice'. Evilness. Greed. Lusts. Hunger for taste of blood. Delusions. Pain. Restlessness.

But what's made them so harmful is because of the strong sense of attachment from them that's growing into him. While Gabriel and Lucifer's presence were very powerful, they never asked anything from him but compliance. These souls, however, want everything from him. They wanted to drag him to join them in death. They wanted to make him suffer as they did. They wanted him…to set them free?

Luckily, Lucifer decided to not being a dick and immediately shoved the souls back into the place where they were belong before.

"What…what happened to them?"

"I forced them to return to where they belong: Nothingness."

"Nothingness?"

"Yes. As you can feel, these people not only committed big sins while they were alive? They clinged themselves into this world too far, they wanted to make themselves into the god so they cannot die. The scariest part about it? They actually come close to become it. And when the truth strike, when the real God make his move…they didn't take it well. Their own presence could torn apart the other souls due to combination of their sins and the power they amassed in their life. They cannot belong to anywhere in afterlife but their own space of nothingness."

"But… I also sensed the will to become free. Why they cannot enter the hell or heaven if they realized what they wanted?"

"Deep down, they want to become free. But their shells are still the same. The shell of a fallen physical god. Their sins are too strong to be penetrated by their own will. The will to become god…is the ultimate path to destruction."

Kaji shuddered at the last sentence. Brrrr. Is this what will happen to Gendo and Keel once they died?

"So, what I want you to do, is to give them their final rest. You'll carry their souls into the world, by your pocket dimension, and then used them and sacrificed them in place of the other's body."

"Which one?" Kaji asked. It's a rhetorical question, of course.

"That's depend on you. You can… use one to cover your own death. You can use one to cover Tabris's death. Or you can use all of them to cover for Shinji or Rei or anyone else to avoid suspicions when you've abducted them for your purpose."

"I see. There's so much possibility." Kaji began to understood

"Which's including the current loop too. I advise you to avoid all thing that will make suspicions arise. That means you need to take a careful approach in all thing that will make the current loop…different. You can't really make a benefit of knowing the exact events that will happen if you changed some of it, can you?"

Indeed, said Kaji in his mind. He cannot mess the events in fear of all things will become too different and become out of control. But this means, until the safe point where he can make his move…everything that made Asuka, Shinji, Misato and the other suffers, will happen to them, too. He really needs to plan everything in advance.

I'm sorry, everyone. But it looks like you all have to wait to realize that you still have a bright future…

"All right. I know what I have to do. The first soul, will replace Toji Suzuhara in EVA-03's rampage. The second, will save mine in my assassination. And the third soul will replace Tabris's death."

"Already made your decision? You know that you can still analyzed the situation first."

"I think it's clear by now that they're very important to avoid….especially if we want to make it as if Gendo and SEELE's scenario are still played just like what they planned."

"I can see for Kaworu and you, but what do you see in Toji? He wasn't an important character, and he didn't even die in the fight."

"Yes, but he's one of those major factor that caused Shinji to snap slowly, right? And if he didn't die like Toji, we can use his soul for different purpose, too."

"Ah, you're right. Well, now it's all settled down, let's talk about the…offer."

Kaji's time is suddenly stopped. Literally. He now see a scene where the rejection of the third impact has different consequences.

The first scene has the consequences he knew already. Earth's left with two child and a lake of LCL. The second scene, however, had the earth recovered from the impact, and had the damages caused by Second Impact erased as well, such as the seasons. Now, autumn has finally arrived to Japan, after 15 years of being denied by the catastrophe.

"Wha…what is this?"

"It's an alternate reality, where several key differences has allowed a different ending for the after-effect of Third Impact. In the alternate reality, Ayanami has gained more power than she had in the original timeline, and had more affection with Shinji. When Shinji rejected the Third Impact, she's also capable of fixed the earth by healing dusts that generated from the body of fully grown Lilith."

"Is it ever happened?"

"No. But you can make it true."

"…Are you always talking in cryptic?"

"Well, mortal, it's always at my amusement to see a lost, confused soul. And regarding the actual meaning of the scene, what I offer to you, is a second chance. A second chance to fix everything that's wrong. But when you take my offer, you also agreed to the clause."

"What clause?"

"That I would take over the authority of the afterlife itself."

"…Satan, I don't know for why you never learn from your mistake."

"No. No,nono. Ryoji Kaji, you mistaken me. I learn. I do. What I learn, is that bloody vengeance made of the act of killing and maiming, is stupid and unnecessary. What I learn, is I need to take the power without any conflict, and I see that now, I have the best chance to do it."

"I won't do it." Said Kaji pride fully and straight to the point.

"Oh… do you? I see the determination from your eyes to keep your promise, but as I said, my offer is something that you cannot refuse. If we talk logically, then you at least would not rejected it, right? Think about it, human. You have a very difficult job to do, and once you did something different in the loop, you'll have to find out what will happen next by yourself. No one can predict it. No one."

Kaji couldn't do nothing but agreed to what Satan said. Indeed. No one know what fate had in their path.

"I'll wait, Kaji." Said Satan. "I'll wait for when it's inevitable for you."

With those words, Satan's now leaves Kaji on his own.

* * *

"So, Kaji…"

"Oh. It's you, God."

Indeed. The god, once again appear in front of Kaji. Kaji then explained the offer from Satan.

"Yes. I know that Lucifer had those trick in his hand."

"Then why are you let him away with that?"

"Because, Kaji…it's not wise to picking up enemies at the time like this. We need allies from anywhere…including former enemies."

"But God-"

"Lucifer also wouldn't do anything 'suspicious' from now on. He wouldn't try to make another fight, let alone war in this situation. It's all in your hand now, to determine his success from now."

"…It is wise, in case that I used his offer?"

"It's selfish, Kaji, but it's not unreasonable. After all, Shinji did something similar before he rejected Instrumentality, right?"

"….Yeah, right."

"Of course, you will be the first prophet to betray your own god."

"Hey!"

"Hahaha. I got you there, ain't I? But seriously, Kaji, I might not bore hatred for you if you chose to accept his offer, but it's still a grave sin. And the other angels and prophets wouldn't say the same thing to you."

"…Huh. Of course, God. It's going to be complicated in case I am forced to face such a predicament." Kaji said those statements while sighed, knowing that his responsibility's growing bigger and bigger. If only Misato knew about it, she may saw him as matured already…

"All I have to say, Kaji, is that you need to choose the path by yourself. It's not my authority to force it on you, and it's not Lucifer either."

"Heh. You talk to me as if I'm still a kid."

"I always considered humans and angels as if they are my own. Now, Kaji…it's time for me to go."

With that, God leave Kaji to have some words with himself.

* * *

Kaji just decided to throw away all his problem temporarily. Now, all he wants to do, is using his imagination for his newfound power.

 _Hmm…pocket dimension, and an invisibility. Perhaps I can surprise Misato and Asuka on their birthday and scared Misato once or twice in the dark. Phehe. But wait! I know that new woman who just become my next neighbor, two room before me. Man, she's hot. Perhaps I can set a romantic dinner, with candle, and some surprise, and then…some raunchy night. With cream and feathers and tongue depressors...Wooho!_

At this time, God decided to become a dick. He overheard Kaji's thought, and then delivered a lightning bolt for his dirty thoughts.

"Aw…can a man have a simply privacy?"

" I leave you for a minute, and you already have so many dirty thoughts like these? What're those cream and feathers for, anyway?"

"To get everything on the line. So…fuck off, God."

That line was meant for nothing but crosses the line joke, but it seems that God took itself too…literally. Or he has a very small line, that Kaji crossed it 5 times instead. As Kaji woke up from his attempt to sleep from his…lightning problem, God began to make a storm. .Storm. So large, the sky had to rip itself to give some room for the thing.

"….I'm fucked up, aren't I?"

"YES YOU ARE!"

* * *

"Gendo Ikari! This's not in the scenario!"

Indeed. The sight of the sky ripping itself, with lightning all over the ripped hole…it must be Ramiel.

And SEELE is not amused at this new finding.

"We haven't even fight the third and fourth Angel, Ikari. What do you have for explanation for this?"

"I don't see it as something that will changed our scenario, gentleman."

"Don't try to make a fool of yourself, Gendo Ikari! We know when an angel attack, and the blue pattern showed us this fact!" Said SEELE-03

"Are you sure? Because as far as I concern, this so-called blue pattern will only fit into blue pattern of our previous definition. I'm sorry for haven't delivered it to you all yet. It's just barely made three hours ago or so."

"…Previous definition? Do you mean-"

"Yes. There's another extraterrestrial beings out there that's similar, but not the same with the Angel, which has been uncovered by the Dead Sea Scrolls."

" Then what the hell is it doing in our solar system?"

" I don't know myself, Keele. But it seems to be pissed. Just pray that it's not here to have a wrath with us…for our plan to become God."

* * *

Rei Ayanami just learn one bit about human emotion. She was still a very innocent young girl, and her innocence would be something that caused her demise later.

It was fear. Fear that the sky will eat her soul for her role in the instrumentality.

"I…i hope i can remember."

* * *

"TIIIIICKLE-TICKLE-TICKLE!"

" Ahoho! That tickle! Stop, God! AHAHAHAH! Stop!"

"All right, now we finished the navel part, I'm going to do the cleansing of your underarms…"

"No! STOP! I order you! Stop! Please! AHAHAHAHA!"

"Oh, you dirty fella, aren't you?"

And so, once again God showed his kindness. The punishment that is called the lightning bolt of mass destruction, has been changed into ticklish storm arrow. Indeed, punishment can come in many different ways…

fafafafa

It was one hell of a day for Ryoji Kaji.

First, he found out that the world is on a time loop problem, and currently on its fifty oneth loops. Second, he also found out that he has become the messiah of the world, and he needs to use all of his money that secretly given by God in for his own plan that made with the help of God and his servants. And third, he found out that not only God did has a sense of humor, but also a rather playful and…kinky fella.

With all these facts. He then began to think about how he will save everyone around him. It's not going to be easy, but so does every prophets before him.

" Misato…Asuka…Shinji…Rei…Everyone. This time, I'll make you all happy!"

* * *

" Remember Fourth Wall, when I said to kill you last?"

" That's right, buddy. You did!"

" I lied…"

" ULALAAAA!"

Now, the guy's gone, i can say something. Umm...

That's all folks!

What. It's not good enough?

Oh, well.

Allright. Once again, if you want suspense, then you shouldn't try to read the Divine Comedy version ( *+0.5) until the fanfic is finished. It will melt your brain due to it's ultra wackiness.


	2. Truth and Dare

Disclaimer: I don't own Evangelion and related things, including Anno's life and his depression. Also, yes, i still hate Q with all my life.

I decided to split the cut into different story. There are too many difference between both cut, and the story's format become...confusing with both cut taking the same space. So, there you go.

Also, the reasons for why i made Kaji the main character, is because i've read too much stories that made Kaji an unrepentant jerkass. I'm okay with the ones that made him a failure in his Casanova roles, but the one that made him allign himself with SEELE or a rapist are just way too much. Kaji was supposed to be EVA version of Bond: A guy who seemingly an asshole and playboy leech, but actually deep down, he suffered a lot, and definitely not a complete jerk. It's just as worse as those fic that made Ryoga and Ron bastards for example, so it's kinda justified for me to feel upset.

* * *

Ryoji Kaji. 31 years old. One of the worker for NERV. Less notoriously a double/triple agent for NERV, SEELE and JSDF. Even less notoriously the only man who managed to retain the previous memories of the previous time loops.

And just as even less notoriously…a prophet and a businessman. And with a load of money in that.

If it wasn't for the fact that he lives in Evangelion world, Kaji would've became one of the most fortunate man in Japan, probably even the world. He became a prophet, and soon after his status ascension into the messenger of god, he became a multi billionaire thanks to his affiliation with one of his earliest follower, who by coincidence, was a very rich businessman. Not that he didn't had any target for strategic follower, anyway. His earliest followers were combinations of rich businessman and scientist, pledged and focused themselves into putting their effort for the high-tech stuffs that's going to help their prophet's mission into saving the world as much as are included clone body for him, Kaworu and Toji, and even manipulation of the genetics of Rei's third body, in order to made her having conflicted feelings regarded her role as the catalyst of the Third Impact. In short, Rei's third body also included genetics of soldiers with natural strong value of justice and order, so she wouldn't give in the temptation so easily.

This is all thanks to his decision to made his tormented soul servants to had more purpose outside of sacrificed their own lives, which included giving him advices for his next steps, as well as provided him coverage in case of the soul that impersonated him. Thanks to their status in their past life as manipulative bastards on par with SEELE and Gendo, they knew all best steps to exploited the loop holes they could find. And the fact that God said by himself that Kaji was allowed do anything that deemed as necessary to give the world the happy ending it deserves for such a long time, made cloning, forgery and genetic manipulations were not concerns for his moral for his scenario.

Of course, since this's Evangelion world, nastier things need to be done as well.

The loop need to be maintained just like the previous loops as much as possible in order to avoid the unecessary events, which meant that for anyone else, things happened just like the usual Evangelion story. All horrible events that were mitigated secretly by Kaji and his followers, in the eyes of the others, happened just as it should be. All the pain caused by those events, were still the same for the others. For anyone else, Jet Alone was a failure, not something that was made to distracted anyone else from the real project. For anyone else, it wasn't Toji's clone that was crippled by the third angel. It was real Toji. For anyone else, Kaji's still an irresponsible ladies man that flirted with lots of his female co-workers, not the very hidden mastermind that secretly manipulated events around him.

And of course, for anyone else, Ryoji Kaji died after the kidnapping of Fuyutsuki.

" You late. You always late. Just like what he said."

The assailant, who was ready to shot him in the head, got stunned by this surreal beginning of conversation.

" What do you mean? What the hell are you talking about?"

" To be killed by an unknown, unimportant character in this epic story….such an anti-climatic ending for my life. But for what do I ask? Perhaps my sin is too great to even deserved a better death."

" Stop talking in cyptic!"

" Indeed. You're not worthy of such information to make everything clear for you. Why don't we just get back to the business and forget everything about it?"

With that, a bang from the gun of the opposing man, was heard.

* * *

Kaji was conflicted.

He was always conflicted with his role in the new story. On one hand, he managed to made everything better since the beginning. On the other hand, he was forced to make everything looked the same like before to fit his scenario. Knew all the pain that were showed by the others from the events just made him sad as if he could feel their sorrow, and regarding Misato after 'his death', he really saw her crying when he decided to sneak around her apartment.

" I'm sorry, everyone. I hope you can understand why I did it all when it's the time for you to find out about it." Said Kaji, as he slowly sneaked away from the apartment, after he felt guilty regarding Shinji and his insecurity and inability to showed his sympathy to Misato.

And now, he had to start the butterfly effect by his copycat's cryptic talk. Soon, the events will be different from the previous loops, and the difference will get bigger and bigger. What he needed, was a distraction. And his associates were ready to give the distractions he needed. They were ready to sacrificed their life now, for the glory of the God. With the lacks of information surrounded his copy's talk regarded what he meant and what he knows, SEELE and Gendo can do nothing but prepared themselves for the worst and did anything they could to retain their power.

Kaji then smiled. He knew that things were already different since a long time ago. The butterfly effect, was already happened long time ago. And it only benefitted him. Even if it already affected his enemies. And he knew they did.

* * *

" So, they secretly distrust each others?"

" Yes. You can thanked me for that."

Kaji could only sighed at this revelation from the body of Toji Suzuhara. Of course, he couldn't fully trusted the soul of someone whom sins were so great that history got rewritten to erased him from existence. And once he found out about this, his suspicion was just confirmed.

" Look. If this's because you got angry because you didn't die from the Thirteenth angel like we wanted-"

" No. I know that he didn't die from it, and I expected the same for me. And I know that my peace need to wait for a while. Also, for your information, no. I'm grateful enough to become the soul of Tabris."

" So, revenge is not what you seek, just like what I expected from your explanation. What's the purpose for doing that, then?"

" Because from what I see, God already made some subtle changes that's not regarding you. He already changed everything from the start, just like what we did."

"…Explain." Said Kaji, ignoring the shock and confusion regarding the fact that his associate already did it long before what he expected.

" Well, when God 'punished' you with that kinky bolt- no, don't give me that glance. I knew it's an unpleasant memory." Said 'Toji' with joking intent, as he saw Kaji's face filled with reddish blush as the sign of embarassment.

" So, anyway, he actually scarred the SEELE organization from that accident, since it actually made the sky seemed to be teared apart by the bolts themselves. It's so scary that it looked as if Ramiel appeared far sooner than what they expected, much less that it made the order of the angels's appearance messed up."

"…You think he actually…planned this since the beginning?"

" I don't know. But as you already learn, our God has a…rather wicked sense of humor. So perhaps he planned it to be going like that, but he decided to went with it with some…style."

" If it's really going down like that, then that joke should be going down as the funniest or unfunniest joke in whole plane of existance."

" Agree. So, anyway, the accident didn't make them expected the worst from the existance of other E.T. beings due to their own concerns, but they did got more paranoid from it. I just capitalized from it for our goals."

" What you actually did?"

" I turned them against each others by several informations and mis-informations."

" And…what did we got from it?"

" Well, first of all, there are some positive and negative consequences from this act. Which one do you want to hear first?"

" Just give me the most important news first…" Said Kaji while grasped his newly found headache.

" Okay. What this change of event caused, first and most of all, is the confirmation of the creation of the monsters made from the DNA of the angels. And it also confirmed that SEELE members voluntered themselves to become this… smaller variants of angels."

" By voluntered, you meant they were the sole recipient of this new forced evolution method for humanity."

" Yes. I guess they wanted to at least become the superior species in case they failed their scenario from the unlikely events that may happen."

"…Okay. At least now we know that the transformation belts now have more purposes outside of the protection from JSDF's attack: To kick some Kaijins's asses." Said Kaji with weak joking intent, tried to make something positive out of his newly found predicament.

" Heh. Now, your childhood dream become true."

" I guess. Too bad that Rei and Shinji would never fully understand the joy from this."

" Well, I guess at least Shinji would. Tokusatsu was huge after second impact, right?"

" Well, yes. He once said that he used to thought that fighting monsters would be cool. But he got nothing but trauma from fighting in EVA, so I guess that he wouldn't enjoy this as much as I do."

" Hah….i guess you're right. So, for the next news, regarding their secret split…" Said 'Toji', as he took some time to spilled the informations.

" So?"

" Now, they knew that only parts of Lilith that were needed to become the god themselves. And as now, they already lobied Gendo to do it for the alternate scenario. Don't worry. They don't know about Lilith and Adam being the forbidden fruit for angels and all." Said the man. He knew that this information from Gabriel needs to be protected as secret as much as possible.

Indeed. From the story that he heard, Angels were used to be the sole race that were supposed to be the worshipper of the God. But no matter how much he made them more powerful, and more close to his power, they simply cannot have the ultimate free will, which were needed to cultivate the earth as he intended it to be used, just like his idealized description of his worshipper were not someone who are obedience to him for any reasons, but rather. His strongest archangels, Gabriel and Michael, were simply taken a hobby or two outside of their job

" Regarding the new scenarios, they wanted it for their own purposes. And the changes made their purposes different. SEELE-02, 04, 07 and 09, for example, still want to become god with the others. But SEELE-11 and 03 want it for himself. While the Instrumentality Committee want it for their own circle. Keel decided to split the parts into seven different parts that was held by the separated individuals so they would still work together, but once Kaworu's death and real role confirmed…"

" What?" Said Kaji, who got annoyed that his associate once again took some time to explain everything.

" Well, some have plan to get the parts for themselves…illegally. Which means secret war between them and the other SEELE members, and probably Gendo."

"…My head hurt." Said Kaji, with his other hand reached out the other temple that now holding the second headache. " I guess that Gendo now has other plan too?"

" Yes. But using Rei for instrumentality is still his preferred scenario. With some of it still on Lilith, it should've been more than enough."

" And what is this… other plan of him?"

" It's a collaboration with Keel. And it still involved Rei in some way. That's all I know."

" I see. Some things wouldn't change, after all." Said Kaji regarding secrets and the objective-no, a sheer will of someone.

" Yes. So…do you think I made it better or worse?"

" Better? You think that making countless amount of probability for future new chain of events and numerous new enemies that neither benefited nor helped us in any way is better? What kind of logic is that?"

" Now, now, Kaji. Relax I just want to see your reaction." Said the man, who saw the outburst of Kaji as amusing event.

" …Jeez. You're just like Lucifer in your need to get someone confused."

" Haha. Being the former most evil man in history will make you a bastard in some way."

" I should've know."

" Now, I have the knowledge that will make you assured that what I do is the best for us. But perhaps it will be the best for you to realized it later? I see that you need some teaching in being…a bastard like us. Hehehe."

"…Misato and Shinji could've hurt, or even killed from this vague revelation."

" You didn't apreciated yourself, Kaji. Misato will be fine, even if they made their move

And now, Kaji saw what's the benefit for his story. Gendo and SEELE, for all their global scale of epic control over the fate of the world, were not that smart and expert at manipulation at all. They just heavily benefited from knowing the future events and being very lucky son of bitches that somehow got everything they planned worked out of sheer luck, especially Gendo, who from the other view, could be seen as just as miserable as Shinji. And now, they're on the same ground and definition as him: A guy who wants to defined the future by his own hand.

The revelation, in addition to make the future as uncertain to anyone else as to SEELE, also made them splitted further, even if their splitted ideology is an open secret amongst themselves. SEELE, the former bastards of the decade that had everything on their hand, now forced to taste their own medicine that they force feeded into humanity: The feeling of paranoia from the future events.

Now, all he needed, is one small step. To put what's supposed to be her in the scenario.

And so, his phone rang.

 _Ritsuko…_

He answered it immediately.

" So…"

" Kaji. I…I've made my mind. I'm sorry that it took me so long to realized it, Kaji."

" It's okay, Rits. What's your decision?"

* * *

Shinji was looking at the ceilings. A very familiar one in that. He always lied to himself about the ceilings, so he will forget about the pains that caused him to see the darned ceilings again.

Of course, just like his pains, he couldn't simply forget about it. And just like his pains, they keep coming back and reminded him on what's it to feel pain, sorrow, and all things related to both. He just couldn't take a break.

With that, Shinji then decided to see the inner self of himself. He decided to see something different from what usually came as the sight from his inner thought. No train of thought, no conner of woe, no creepy puppets of his associates.

It was only one word, standing alone in the dark: Selfish.

Shinji at this time thought to himself that he was a very self-centered person who couldn't give a damn about the others. Indeed, the logics for this conclusion were very flawed, but just twisted it enough, then it would make sense for everyone. Shinji knew that he just run away again, just like his yet another encounters with the not-so familiar ceillings.

All he wanted from the bloody mess that came from EVA fights were his father's approval, which he gave to him one time…only to be crushed, spatted and destroyed very soon by his fight against the thirteenth angel. And after that, he keep failed and failed to even showed a very simple thing that's called sympathy towards the other who needed it as much as he did. He failed to apologized to Toji, too guilty ridden to even faced him. He failed to comforted Misato after Kaji's death, weakly justified himself by claimed that he couldn't do anything about it since he's 'just a kid'. He then avoided Rei after he learned that she's nothing but replacable clone, and from Ritsuko's cryptic explanation, made from Lilith just like the Evangelions. This's despite she just faced death itself and muddled her own memories, and possibly had a much, much worse childhood than anyone he knew, including himself.

 _I'm pathetic. Sorry, Kaji. I..i just can't face the truth like you told me so._

The truth. That's the letter that Kaji left at his death for Shinji. He told Shinji to 'face the truth'. A very harsh string of three words for Shinji, but it became something that Shinji thought off after some reminiscing. He began to thought that his pains were caused by his-no, everyone's inability to tell the truth. His dad, Rei, Asuka, Misato…everyone caused him suffering from their tangled web of lies. And he thought that they also suffered from their own lies. Their inability to spill their horrible secret from the beginning that only leaked out at the worst time possible.

And then it struct him down: They were suffered from their lies. And they were close to him, although for his dad, it's a scretch of imagination.

And now, he just got a new friend. A friend that just declared that he loved him.

 _Kaworu…do you-do you have any secret, too? No, Kaworu. I don't want you to sacrificed yourself for me, only to break my heart at the end. Just like Rei did. No. Kaworu, please…Tell me that I can trust you…_

The tears fell from his eyes. Finally, the tears fell from the eyes.

" Shinji-kun, what's wrong?"

Kaworu was awake.

" You…you awake?"

" Yes, Shinji-kun. I'm not sleepy yet. Tell me, Shinji-kun. Is it something with home? Your father?"

" No, Kaworu. It's different." Said Shinji, as he wiped out the tears.

" Then tell me. Tell me what is it?"

" Kaworu." Said Shinji, as he took a deep breath. " I think I realized the cause of my pain."

" Really? That's wonderful, Shinji-kun! Tell me, what's the cause." Said Kaworu, smiled at his friend.

" It's…it's because we have secrets. Terrible secrets, and we can't tell the others what's wrong with them in the first place, even when we're close to each others."

" Like what?"

" Like…like me. I always tell myself about this unfamiliar ceillings, that I musn't run away. But the ceilings Are familiar. And I do want to run away. I lied to myself. And Rei…heh. You wouldn't believe what I know about her."

Kaworu didn't give a reply to Shinji, and then Shinji asked Kaworu.

" Kaworu…do you…do you happen to have some secrets as well?"

" Yes."

" Kaworu, do you want to make me happy?"

" Yes. Absolutely, Shinji-kun. It's my wish to make you happy."

" Then tell me your secrets, Kaworu-kun."

Kaworu took a glance at Shinji first. Shinji gave him a weak smile, but it didn't convince him at all.

" Perhaps later, Shinji."

" Ah. I see. You're just like the others." Said Shinji. His words that came from his mouth were filled with dissapointment and disgust. With that, and several minutes of silence, he's ready to cried himself to sleep again. His new friend, after all, was still the same as the others: People who couldn't trust him and will caused him suffering in the end.

Until Kaworu spoke again.

" I wish that I could, Shinji-kun. But the truth is, I don't know the fact about myself. I thought that I already knew about my true purpose, but now…"

" What you meant?"

" I'll be honest to you, Shinji-kun. I keep hearing voices. Calling out for me. Saying things about forgiveness and love. Saying things like this's not my purpose, I should forgive him."

Shinji kept listening to him.

" Like I said before, I thought that my purposes were clear. But now…I doubted myself. I'm sorry, Shinji-kun. I really want to help you with whatever it takes to make you happy, but until I figured it out, until I fully understood my own nature, I can't say anything about my own secret."

" I understand, Kaworu-kun. It's okay. I'm sorry that I doubted you before. But…what's your supposed purpose before, if I may ask?"

Shinji may still a very weak willed human being, but he tried to be savvy now, and had a slight success in it. He sensed something strange from Kaworu. His intents to make him happy were felt as genuine, he sure of it, but there are something that's…unsettling from him. Just like Ayanami, but at the different spectrum of uncannyness.

 _It's always the same. Someone close lied to me to protect our relationship, only for the lies to destroyed us at the very end. Kaworu…please, don't make the same mistake._

" I really can't tell it now, Shinji. Perhaps…perhaps sometimes later. But trust me, Shinji-kun. I do love you. And I do have regard for your sensitive heart."

Sometimes. Later. Shinji knew what it meant. It meant that someone will keep their lies until said lies destroyed him and the person who kept it. It meant that once again, someone would make a same mistake from the same thing that's called dishonesty.

Shinji can only stared at Kaworu without the knowledge from the latter who just fell asleep, felt that once again, the scarcest hope that he could find faded away from him. After a long stare, a minute or so, he finally decided to do the same thing as his newly friend did. But with a string of thought before his eyes fall into the dream world.

 _Kaji…how could I face the truth if it always kept away from me?_

* * *

Another unfamiliar ceillings…

No. It's really different.

Shinji has awoken at a different room from where he slept before, and he didn't know where he was at this moment. Certainly, no place where he has stumbled into it before, but where?

The strangest thing from this scene in Shinji's perspective? He could've swore that he saw Kaji's shadow from behind the glass.

No. It's really him.

…I'm going insane, aren't i?

But as soon as Kaji entered the room, and gave Shinji several moments to convinced himself that everything that happens now is real, Shinji slowly gave a weak smile behind his confusion and terrified face.

" Kaji…I thought you were-"

" Dead?"

The smile was gone. Now placed with nervousness.

Kaji had a gun.

" Wh…what are you doing, Kaji?"

" What should I do since the beginning."

The gun was now pointed at Shinji, who was on a very dangerous thin line of crossing the stage that's called insanity.

" I've survived the future, Shinji. To say that it was a horrible mess was an understatement. Earth's dying, people dying. There's no hope. And now, I'm going to do what I need to avoid such circumstences happen again."

" You're going to kill me."

" Precisely. The EVA-01 will be useless without you piloted it, and as you can see, it has ascend the stage of godhood. You and Rei will bring the world into the end together, and I cannot allow it happened again."

" Where's Kaworu?"

" He has been…apprehended."

All hopes are gone…

" You know what day is it, Shinji?"

Shinji can only look at his father figure with disgust and fear. No answers ever came out from his mind, let alone his mouth.

" Payday."

 _Bang!_

* * *

That's what the flag from the gun said, written clearly with drawn explosion on it.

The young man was confused. Very confused.

The adult in front of him now smiled. After several moments, he used his arms to make a body sign.

A sign that asked for a hug.

Shinji then got up from his new bed, got closer with Kaji with his steps. Kaji's grin, or smile, was getting bigger, and his hands were ready to embrace Shinji.

A slap. That was unexpected.

Said Kaji, as Shinji, now looks pissed and all, just did exactly that.

" You told me to face the truth, Kaji. You told me to never lies to myself again. But you lied too. You LIED TO US! How could you-"

Shinji stopped for a moment there, tried to string some more words to rant at Kaji. He finally managed to do it, while pounded weak fists at Kaji.

" You…you let Asuka tried to commit suicide! Now she's in a coma, and god know when she will wake. How can you let that happen! You said that you knew everything that will happen, and yet you let Toji, Rei, Asuka…you…you…"

" It was all necessary to let everything seemingly went according to the plan of Gendo and SEELE. I'm sorry, Shinji. But I couldn't risk to make everything went worse instead of better. But for your information, I worked behind the scenes to make everything secretly went"

" My…father? SEELE? What is it?" Shinji asked, stopped his flying fists at this moment.

" I'm sorry, Shinji. I knew that I'm such an hypocrite for not telling you the truth, and lied to all, but I don't have any choice. Even with my care, the world already changed too much. Things were just ready to get out of control now. So, about the truth…"

" Ah, damnit. I never thought it would be so hard. So, Shinji…"

A minute passed by. Shinji, now the angers has been greatly receeded, waiting for those words that asking for forgiveness.

" So, Shinji…will you forgive me?"

Forgiveness. Deep down inside his heart, all he wants was something good happened to him again. A genuine good thing. One thing. Just…one thing.

" Shinji…I promise. The truth won't hurt you again. Even if it do, then at least I can promise that I won't let you hurt anymore. Even if I need to sacrificed myself."

 _Somebody want to protect me…Without any lies._

And so, he embraced his guardian. No more thought were needed to do that. He just trusted his instinct.

 _Yes…this is all I need._

The younger man tightened his hug, having no intention to let it go sooner. He always wanted it before, the embrace of someone for him without any selfish desire but to comfort him, and he finally got it now.

" Kaji…thank you. Thank you for all of this. Please…never go away again from me. From everyone. From me…from Asuka…from Misato…"

 _Misato…_

He shuddered from remembering that name. The name of the woman who had taken care of him, and just like Kaji, she acted as if she's his own mother, despite her abysmal cooking skill and all. But now, he has driven her away with his apathy toward her, and he didn't know if she would return back for him again. Just when he about to cried, another pair of arms embraced him, surprised him. And a sentence was spoken, came out from two different vocals.

" We won't."

The pair of arms were belong to Misato. Now, Shinji knew the truth: Some people do love him. The trio then smiled, ready for any obstacles that will be thrown to them with their bonds.

But they know there's still so much work to do.

* * *

"So Toji…how is it going there?"

"Ah, sorry, Shin. I can't hear you. Wait for a sec…ah. There you go. What did you say, Shinji?"

"Umm… how is it going?"

"Everything's fine here, Shinjiman. I still have Kensuke and my girlfriend, and Mari is now healthy enough to play with me. All thanks to your Kaji."

"Girlfriend? You two are officially… lovey-dovey now?"

"Yeah!"

"Well… it's good to hear another good thing come out from this war."

"There's another one."

"There is?"

"Yeah. Half-Life 3 confirmed."

The two young man were laughing at this, but the war indeed made Gabe Newell finally decided to initiate the next step in the making of Half-Life 3. At least, if the Third Impact finally happened, the gamers would have more than enough authentic ideas to make up their own Half-Life 3 in their dream world. Of course, being one of the believer and investor to Kaji, Gabe Newell also had his hope high to Kaji and his man.

Meanwhile, in the other room, two adults were also having a talk.

"Jeez, Kaji. I still can't believe that God chose you to become the prophet. I mean, you're unshaven, unloyal, uncaring-"

"Unromantic, a ladies man, and overall a man not to trust to?"

"And that's not all!"

"You know the world is screwed when the best candidate for the new prophet is me."

"Now you're being depreciative."

"It's all a joke, Misato. How much do you trust me, anyway?"

"A lot…kinda."

"Kinda?"

"I trust you, Kaji, but what kind of chance do you have to save the world anyway?"

"As much as the God put into me."

"Oh, did he?"

"Are you disbelieving in him?"

" I'm not, Kaji. I'm just…pissed at how much shit he threw into us! I mean, how can he let the SEELE playing god without we even know about their existance until you told us! Hell, even Shinji don't know anything about it! And even with you as the prophet, he still barely does anything! Why is he…why…." Misato was angry…and confused. She didn't believe that God was exist, because she thought that someone as holy as him would never let the world suffered into this crapsack pisshole like it is now. And now, he has returned and did many things…that still not significant in any way…in her eyes.

Kaji, knew that she's more confused than outright disavowed him and his god, tried to embrace her from the back. Misato allowed his arms to make their way into her body, knowing that Kaji meant good for her, and it was not another fake casanova façade like before.

"Misato…there are reasons for why he doesn't directly intervened us."

"He's supposed to be an all-powerful being…"

"He is. That's why he cannot takes the matter in his own hand. Remember 'the day when the sky torn away'?"

Her mind soon got puzzled, before it tried to solve the puzzle by itself. Luckily, it succeed.

"That was also the day when he declared you as his prophet?"

"Yes, Misato. And you know the scariest thing is? He used his weakest form. And he was just toying with me."

Misato can only gasped at the description about God's strength. Of course, Kaji left the detail about kinky thunder for him. God told him to keep it as a secret, and even if he didn't, the experience was way too embarassing for him.

"Yeah. Angelic beings are scarier than we thought, aren't they? And I also have met Lucifer and Gabriel, and trust me, these guys can melt your brain by their presence alone."

"I… see…"

"Well, that's the start for rebuilding our relationship. How about this?"

Kaji gave her a little peck to her right cheek, both to playing with her and to make her release some of her pressure, which prompted her to make a response. If it was his older self, he would be slapped right away. But seeing this more mature, responsible gentleman, she could do nothing but playing at his own game.

"You tease…" Said Misato, who tried to 'give back' the playful kiss that Kaji gave. But she missed. Instead of his cheek, she gave a peck to his neck. This's resulted in Kaji shuddered from the kiss, and Misato turned red from her…failure.

"I…I didn't meant to do that!"

"Come on, Misato! We have done… raunchier things before. There's no need to be so…embarassed!"

"But it's different! It's like that the Kaji I know is a different person than the Kaji I faced now. It's…different for me. And somehow make me feel embarassed."

"And what's the difference between me, and the Kaji that has been imprinted in your mind?"

"Well, for the starter, you're actually…responsible…also, you not acting like a jerk toward someone you love."

"Do you like it?"

"Yes. I like it. Not only you are nicer than before, but you also don't remind me of-"

"Your father?"

"Yes. My father. It just…I'm sorry, Kaji. I want to accuse you for doing this…jerkass mask thing. But it seems that doing it just make me a hypocrite. For hiding the truth of our breakup that day, and my reasons to stay away from you. God, I'm stupid…"

"Humans do make stupid decisions, Misato. That's why we learn. From everything we did, we gained knowledge to make ourselves better. Sometimes we did it immediately from those experience. Sometimes, we take time to applied it to ourselves."

"I guess you're right."

They were locked in Kaji's embrace, with neither want to let it go from them. They only released it after Shinji returned into their room, ready for another briefing regarding what he needs to do soon.

"So, Shinji, do Suzuhara forgive you?"

"Forgive me? He actually scolded me for my decision to blame myself when I have no other choice and it's all the old man's fault in the first place. And he said that I never considered his point of view. To be forced to hurt your friend, to feel your own hands ripping apart your own friends while you unable to do anything…Kaji, I was really stupid, wasn't i?"

Kaji was slightly surprised at Toji's lies to Shinji, but he felt that he did that to teach his friend a bit of lesson.

"Well…humans needs to learn, aren't we? That's our weakness and beauty at the same time."

Misato could do nothing but realized that the lesson he gave to Shinji was similar with her.

"So, Kaji…I guess there's more for me to do than this, right?"

"Yes, Shinji. This's only the beginning of our new journey."

"…I see."

Kaji could see his sadness at the need to fight again. They didn't have any choice, but Shinji needs an encouragement. Not the kind of emotional blackmail like his first fight. But the one that came from his own heart.

"Shinji…what does your heart told you?"

"It told me…to do the right thing."

"And what do you think that count as the right thing."

"To fight. To join with you."

"And what is the thing that made you hesistate?"

"I…it's"

Shinji then realized something. His doubt. It…

"…it dissapear. What happened, Kaji? I doubted myself there. But now, I become confident again."

Kaji then smiled at the confused Shinji.

"Shinji…that's the power of the seed of truth. Once you know the right choice to do, it will remove any kind of doubtness in your heart, as long as you have the will to do the right thing."

"I see…"

"How does it feel, Shinji?"

"It's strange, Misato-san…but good at the same time. What can I say, is that it..eases my mind."

"Well, good to know that Kaji doesn't pull any harming tricks on you."

"But this one will be. Not for him, anyway."

"Huh? What are you talking about, Kaji?"

* * *

 _Okay. This is it._

Shinji took a deep breath before he did his next task. He remembered what Kaji told to him at their little journey into Ayanami residence.

 _"I really need to talk to her?"_

 _"Yes. Rei is the key to all of this."_

 _"Heh. I should've know."_

 _"…You're scared of her, aren't you?"_

 _"How can you be not scared of her when you found out that she is nothing but a disposable clone?"_

 _"Now, now, Shinji. What do you feel for her?"_

 _"I…I feel sorry for her. But I really don't know what to do."_

 _"Now, would you do something to make her get her happy, if you have the chance?"_

 _"I…I guess. No. I must."_

 _"I see that you have feelings for her that's more than sympathy, Shinji. What is it. Attraction? Love?"_

 _"St…stop that."_

 _"Well, it's good to see that my Shinji is still a nervous wreck around woman."_

 _"Misato!"_

 _"Well, let's put this teenage crush thing down for a while. Sorry, Shinji, for started it. And Misato, stop blushing at me. It's weird to see you going teenager crush around me too."_

 _"You ass…"_

 _"So, Shinji…my main task aside from saving the world, is to give everyone a chance to live a decent life. That means you, Misato, Asuka, and even Rei. Now, as Rei was a clone of Lilith and your mother-"_

 _"Wait. She was made from my mother's genes too?"_

 _"Yes. Wait, Ritsuko didn't tell you about it?"_

 _"No. She was…mumbling about EVAs being human while gave the vaguest hint about Rei being half-angel. She was going insane at that moment."_

 _"I see. She still had her doubt, after all."_

 _"What are you talking about?"_

 _"Let's talk about this later, Misato."_

 _"So, Rei was a clone of Lilith and mother. What does that mean?"_

 _"It means that Rei has no identity of her own. Poor girl exist for nothing but a trophy resemblance of Yui Ikari."_

 _"Father…how much of a bastard are you for being capable of doing this?"_

 _"A very misguided bastard he is. Now, Shinji, I know that you're very angry right now, but let's focus to the more urgent task. Shinji, just like you, I gave Rei a message that questioned herself. But I also gave her something more."_

 _"..An identity?"_

 _"Yes. Now, Rei is no more a trophy memoirs of your mother. She has more than enough genetics to make her an entirely new human being. Don't question me about how I made her still looks the same. It's a long story. But…it's only an initiation step. She needs more than that."_

 _"And this is has something to do with me, right?"_

 _"Yes. Shinji, you're the first one to have any kind of real relationship with her. Even if you're not that close, you're the first one to give her genuine concern without any kind of selfish interest. If there's someone who can help her in her next step of embracing humanity, it's you."_

 _"…How?"_

 _"Rei's more difficult than you to be changed, Shinji. She has suffered much more than you, in a sense. She has been taught to be detached from the world since she was born, as you can see from her old room. She's a much harder task to be convinced to embrace her chance, Shinji. She needs something…extra to be free of her old self. And it's not going to be pretty for her. And as a wielder of wisdom, she needs the truth."_

 _"Wisdom?"_

 _"Well, to explain it, the wisdom is more about 'what will Ayanami do in this situation?'. In short, it's more about herself than the others. To make the best of her wisdom, Rei will needs to know the truth. And you, Shinji, will give her the advice to make out her newly found freedom."_

 _"I see, but…is it kinda strange, that someone with wisdom needs to be nursed?"_

 _"Not at all. This is Rei that we're talking about."_

 _"Heh. I guess so. Still…what if she rejected me?"_

 _"She won't."_

 _"What if I failed?"_

 _"You won't."_

 _"Okay, so you're pretty confident in me, Kaji. Is there anything else I need to know?"_

 _"Wisdom only means something if there's someone else that can give another look on it. Good luck, Shinji."_

 _Yeah. Good luck for me._

Again, Shinji took a deep breath. To seek someone that he had avoided for a few weeks is not an easy experience, especially for the meek boy like him who struggled to even has a normal conversation with normal people without embarassment. But now, he know that he needs to do it. Somehow, he wished that his guardians shouldn't have to leave to take care the other problems.

Knocking the door, even with knowledge that the door is not locked, Shinji patiently waited for Rei to open the door for him. With those seconds spent to wait for her, Shinji amased his courage to meet her face to face again.

By the time she opened the door, his fear is already gone.

"Ikari-kun…"

"Yes…It's me."

"It's late."

"Yeah. It is late."

"What do you want, Ikari-kun?"

"Ah. I want to…speak with you. A bit."

A strange silence took the momen between both of them, before Rei gave her nod of approval.

The room was still as messed up as he remembered, but with one small, but important detail: The commander's glasses, is cracked and bend.

"What do you want to speak, Ikari-kun?"

"Ah, it's about…well…"

Another strange silence took over the situation.

"I..i want to…I want to say sorry."

"…Sorry?"

"Yes. I learned something…terrible about you, weeks ago. And I was…kinda scared, you know. So, I kinda…avoided you until now. But…"

Yet another silence took over both of them. Shinji, realized on how awkward their conversation become, decided to acts as if he was less embarassed. After all, his fear already gone by the time he's arrived here.

"But I feel that it's…kinda selfish, you know, to avoid someone just because he's different from you. Ah, sorry. I didn't mean it."

 _Ah, what have I done!_

"So, um..i decided to have some talk with you, to get your acceptance for my apology. Yeah, that's why I'm here for. So, um, Ayanami-san…will you forgive me?"

"I accept your apology, Ikari-kun." Said Rei, after several seconds of gap. She already knew what he meant by different, since she no longer had her dummy plug maintenance schedule run like it was supposed to.

"Why, thanks, Re-Ayanami-san! So, may i-"

"It's my turn to ask you, Ikari-kun. Also, you may call me Rei from now on."

Shinji did nothing but nodded at her, not knowing what to do with this new action of…intimacy from her, to ask him to call her by her given name. She told him to call her Rei?

"Now, Ikari-kun-"

"You can call me Shinji, too, if you want to."

"Very well, Shinji-kun. Shinji-kun, I have a nightmare since a week ago. I never dreamed before, and now…"

"A nightmare?"

"Yes. I dreamed that I already done my job, my purpose…but someone decried that this is fake, this is not what he wants to. The cry soon become louder, and I can't help myself but to agree with him. But when I tried to return it back…I can't."

Shinji was listening to her. It's kinda weird for him to see Rei spoke more than two sentences, but from it, he could see that Rei was stressed from this problem.

"Shinji-kun, if you have the chance to make everyone around you happy, to throw over their borders that keep them away from everyone, their problems, their pain, but at the cost of their identity, would you take it?"

 _Now what the hell is she talking about?_

"I…I don't think I would."

"Why?"

"Rei, I know the pain and the feel from me being sucks at being close to everyone around me, and sometimes I feel that the world need to just go away from me so I can be alone with myself. But, to lose the identity in doing so, it…it feel just wrong, Rei. And wouldn't it be selfish, if I did it without their consent?"

"If it made them better, then what would you think?"

"I…look, Rei. I want people's warmth. Real warmth. And I got-remember what is it to feel their warmth. To loss your identity to make your pain gone, it's…it's just wrong, Rei! You may feel better initially, but once you give it some thought, you will find yourself wanting your old world back, because you found that the new identity-less world is fake. That's it. Fake."

" I still don't understand about this being wrong."

"I don't know to describe it, Rei. I just don't know. But I think it's close to be nothing but…imagination. And I don't want to be trapped in my own illusion."

 _Human's mind is so…unpredictable. But I can see his reason._

"Shinji…there's something I need to tell."

"What is it, then?"

"When I said that my purpose to live, is to pilot the EVA…there's more than that. I used to feel that's my only real purpose, but after my…revival, I'm not sure that what I bring is the best for everyone."

"What is your purpose actually, then? I already learn something about you, anyway, so"

"…To initiate the third impact. To unite everybody as one, by a forced evolution ignited by my ."

Shinji's eyes widened in shock. His heart thumped faster than ever. His fear clouded his mind more than ever. Here, the girl that he tried to help, is not only a memoir of his late mother, but also a maiden of apocalypse. The fact shocked him. 'What', is the only word he can say, but the way he released that word was more than enough to show his new fear toward her.

But the seed of truth made it work again. Soon, he no longer feared the blue-haired angel in front of him anymore. What he saw is no longer a destroyer of the world, but another victim of his father's game instead. Soon, he remembered the reason for why he's here: To save her.

"Rei…why did you tell me this now?" Said Shinji. There are still things that he needs to learn by himself.

"Because I trusted you, Shinji-kun. I don't know why, but I feel that if I want to discuss my decision here, regarding fate, then you're the one that I want to talk to."

"Rei-chan…"

 _What kind of decision?_

"There's a box in my bathroom. You can open it to see it by yourself, to see my decision. To see my wish."

Shinji complied to her command, which then prompted him to move his feet to get into her bathroom. As soon as he opened the box, he glared again at what he found:

A syringe, and a supplies of Sodium thiopental.

"Rei…what's the meaning of this?"

"That's my wish, and my answer, Shinji-kun. I wish to return to nothingness, now that I'm no longer expendable."

"…Nothingness?"

"No past, no family…no connection to the world. I have no one that would care should I gone from the realm of existance."

"I DO!"

Startled at the screaming Third Child, the blue-haired girl then took some moments to regain her composure before she spoke again.

"Shinji-kun…what do you wish from me?"

Now, it's the Third Child's turn to be startled. He regained his composure faster than the First, but compared the events that startled both of them, it would be logical to have the Third Child as the one who put himself back faster.

"I…I only wish to help you, Rei."

A silence followed them. Perhaps for the last.

"Then so be it. Farewell..Shinji."

Shinji's mind was engulfed in silent chaos as the pair prepared themselves for the will of Ayanami, tried to process itself into concluding whether her decision was the right one or not. His logical mind saying that it was a…logical decision, with her death immediately rejected the possibility of enduring Third Impact show. While his logical side took her wish for nothingness positively, his emotional side took a much more negative stance, as he wished nothing but her well being, and saw her took her death as if it was nothing showed on how good his father raised her. Boiled with rage, muddled with confusion, and heart-broken by soon to be sadness, the seed once again showed him the path.

They're going to give everyone second chance of happiness.

With that, he decided his next decision. And he filled the syringe with the liquid.

* * *

"Thank you for your assistance, Shinji-kun. You have done your job well….Goodbye."

With that, Rei's eyes went to sleep.

To say that Shinji was traumatized by this unpredictable set of events was an understatement of the month.

To say that Shinji never expected the stuff he carried from where he met Kaji also contained some sort of liquid that looked like the drug from the box was an obvious statement.

To say that Shinji was scared at the sight of Rei trashing around her was another obvious statement.

"Rei, what's wrong? Rei."

No response from Rei, who right now was at the floor, still trashing around.

"REI!"

Shinji was scared again. He didn't know what he did wrong this time, for all he know that he placed the stuff he carried in place of the lethal injection.

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

He then remembered.

 _Wisdom only means something if there's someone else that can give another look on it._

No…it was meant like this.

Not knowing what else to do, Shinji then did what he thought as the best thing he can do in this situation.

He embraced Rei, hugged her from the behind as he also forced her to take a sit in the floor. It seemed to be working, as Rei now stopped failing her arms aimlessly, stopped at his embrace at her.

 _Perhaps she will forgive me again…_

*Smack*

Shinji now no longer wrapped his arms around her, both from shock at her action, and from her punch that made him fall to the ground. For the first time, Shinji saw what he thought as pure anger from her eyes. Not the annoyed one like when she slapped him at his rude, but justified comment regarding his trust on his father. The one that was made out of anger, rage, and sense of betrayal.

"Liar…"

Unflatered Rage.

"You lied to me!"

Anger.

"I just have one wish, and you still screwed it!I trusted you, Shinji. I trusted you…"

Betrayal.

"Rei…I'm sorry for this. I…I can't fullfish your wish for nothingness. But I'm honest about wanting to help you, Rei…"

A silence took over them again. The last one, was really not.

"Why?"

Shinji took a deep breath before he speak again. It's really been a long night for him.

"Because I care about you, Rei. I wish for your happiness."

Not knowing what and how to response to this, Rei then went into fetal position, muttering to herself.

"This feeling…I never feel something like this before. Not even when I cried for the first time. Not even when he saved me. Not even when…you…"

"Rei, i-"

" NO! STAY AWAY FROM ME!"

Shinji's heart was truly broken. Here, he was tried to do what he thought as the best thing he could do at this situation, and all he got was a dissaproval, outright rejection of his actions. Perhaps Kaji was wrong…

No.

At this time, it was not the truth that told him to keep himself up, but rather, it was his logical side. It told him that she didn't hate him, but rather confused at the new feelings that filled her in such a short time. He needs to give her more time. Perhaps…

"Fine, Rei. I'll be waiting outside."

With that, he's gone from her view. Her mind swore that she heard faintly 'I wish you change your mind', but she couldn't make anything out of it.

Indeed, her mind was not on it's normal and stable condition, even at her standard. The…fluids that Shinji gave to her forced her mind to replay her memories, but for some reasons, they felt more…intense to her. It's like as if she experienced them as what normal people should be, without her medications and all of her upbringing. It's like she was forced to embrace humanity by every way possible, and it hurts. It hurts so much.

'Why Ikar-Shinji wants to stay this way? It bring me nothing but pain. It's not worth it. It's not.'

' It's.. worth it.'

As her mind began to replay her other memories, she began to reject her own recently made conclusion.

The first memory come from her first smile, at her first angel fight against Ramiel. She remembered on how she didn't know on how to react at this acts from him, and smiled as he told her to do so. The memories then flooded her more, and all of them were nothing but her experiences with Shinji, from the heartwarming one like when he cleaned her room, leading to her first time to said the word of gratitude, to the funnier one like when they and Asuka had to enter the Geofront without electricity running. All of them were about Shinji. The memory then ended with her memory as her previous incarnation sacrificed herself at 16th angel's fight.

 _I…I remember._

She was again overwhelmed by the sensation, but it's different from before. This time, she feel…warm from inside.

She then decided.

Loneliness is her darkness, and Shinji is her fire.

* * *

Shinji was there, squatting at the balcony.

At his hand was a twig.

He snapped it. His expression was blank, but yet filled with furry.

At this point, Shinji really didn't know what he's going to do next. Neither part of him really know what he's going to do next, nor his seed of truth said something else but that he has done the right thing.

Right now, the only thing that can help him out of this condition, is Ayanami's word of gratitude.

His eyes were filled with water, reddened with sadness. Despite his logical side told him that Rei's more confused than angry to him, her rejection at his attempt to comfort her still hurt his feeling pretty bad. The twig was thrown to the ground, leaving his hand free to carress his face again.

He then decided it was the time to face the truth. To hear her wisdom.

He then hesistantly moved his feet into the front of the door to knocked on it again, despite the fact that he's already accepted as visitor before. His mouth, also hesistantly, uttered his words.

"Rei? Are…are you awake?"

No response.

"Rei, if you can hear me, I'm..i'm sorry, Rei. I didn't mean to hurt you. Like I said, i..i just want to help you."

Still no response.

"Rei…if you don't want to see my face for now…I guess I can go away from you for now."

"No."

Finally a response, although he couldn't make out of this. He then opened the door by himself.

"Rei? I-"

"NO!"

Rei tackled him, hugged him as hard as she can, as if his existance would fade away if she released him ever so slightly. The sight of Rei suddenly bursted and embraced him this tightly was an unexpected one, although very pleasant one in that. He blushed at this unexpected chain of event, although he also wished that she would put less pressure on him so he can breath freely for a while. She was sobbing, making this situation even more awkward than already is.

"Please…don't leave me again. Don't… ignore me again like before. I don't want to lose you again."

Shinji, regained his composure, finally answered her.

"I won't leave you Rei. I won't."

She sounded relieved from this, despite her lacks of answer from the form of lingual. However, she soon sobbed harder than before, making Shinji worried if he did something wrong again.

"Rei, what's wrong?"

"I'm not a doll. I…I'm not…a…doll…"

Rei was stumbled at her words, struggling with her sobs. She then buried her face inside his chest, cried her next words loudly.

"Shinji! Please tell me that I'm not a doll!"

"You're not a doll, Rei. You're not…a doll…You're a human. You're Rei Ayanami. My friend. My…"

Shinji answered her with ease, knowing that now, Rei was fully accepting him and his actions. He felt so happy now that he immediately ignored his almost slip, and he wished that she also did.

Rei was shaken away from her cry, as she felt another falling tears into her head.

"Shinji…you cried. Why?"

"Because I'm happy, Rei. You can cry if you feel happy, too."

Rei has been wondering about this for a while. After he assured her that he saw her as a fellow friend, her sorrow was washed away by the warmness of his words. And yet, she still cried. And she got confused further as he also cried. But now…

"I see. I understand now."

A silence engulfed them, but this time it brought warmness alongside it. Rei enjoyed Shinji's gentle stroke at her hair, and she unconditionally returned it with her massage on his own.

"I'm sorry for asking you these kind of redundant questions, Shinji…I still don't know how to react at emotions like this."

"It's okay, Rei. It's okay…this is all we need."

With that, they continued their embrace, as if they were going to dissapear should they let go their arms from each others. It felt as if the night has been reserved all for their own to spend, as if there's no problem in the world to cared about. All they want now, is for this to never stop, for this to never end.

God is in heaven, and all is right with the world.

* * *

A/N: I'm sorry if the story feels bad, rushed, and cheesy. It's my first try to make Waffy, sappy chapter, and after tons of funny things i wrote, i feel...inexperienced in this sector.

Also, i know that Rei's DNA percentage thingy is kinda overused, but i feel that it's necessary, since Kaji's role here was meant to give everyone a second chance. Shinji got to feel true happiness again, Misato got her relationship with Kaji and Shinji restored, and Kaworu would got his angel title and his place in heaven back, so why not give our biggest woobie in the show one of the mean to get her happiness too outside of her relationship with Shinji? And as far as i know, it's not defined on how much of Yui's DNA that was written into her, and i've read many different story on how much Yui's DNA that was on Rei, from just necessary lines for her face to being the dominant genes, and there's even one that made Lilith's DNA mutagen, so i just used one of the plausible plot device to make her less squicky, but it also meant to be the symbolism that she's not just a clone anymore, but a girl that was given a chance to become her own. And symbolism=win in EVA. I mean, there are people who still loves Q. So this fic will become good! YAYYY!

Also, the next chapters will have more actions. They would become the riders next, after all.

And finally, in case you wondered what caused Rei and Kaworu to went OOC, well, let's just say that both of them experienced a very, VERY unexpected feelings, hammered by questions that never strike their mind and it keep haunted them. However, while Kaworu had it good and all of it only made him confused, Rei kept getting hammered by those feeling and questions with the subtlety of a bulldozer on rampage. And yes, in next story, she will return to her normal emotional state.

AAAAND It's Omake time!

* * *

 _A very different Rei._

"Ayanami!"

The blue haired and red eyed girl, who somehow survived the suicide attack against the sixteenth angel, was now covered in robe. Only her strangely colored eyes and hair that gave the indication that it's really her. The robe just gave the already mysterious girl more aura of mystery, which, by now, was really unecessary.

The girl now sat down in a hospital bench, and the boy leaned against the wall. Several minutes passed by before the anxious boy managed to start the conversation.

"I guess you're okay...and my dad is not around here."

Rei stay silent. Just as expected.

"So, Ayanami...Thank you for saving me."

"For what?"

 _Strange. Her voice sounds more...masculine?_

"What do you mean? You saved me by sacrificed the Unit-00."

"I see. I really saved you, then."

"You...you don't remember?"

"I do. I'm just not sure about it."

"Do you lost your memories, or something like that, Ayanami?"

"No. It's probably because...i'm not the Rei that you know."

 _Gendo's office. Later that day.  
_

"May i speak, Commander Ikari?"

"Sure. But what's with the robe? Remove it. Now. It give me some...unsettling vibe."

"If that's your wish...Commander"

 _What the?_ That's the only words came from Gendo Ikari, who just saw the change from Rei's body as she, er, he took off the robe. Gone the slender, fragile looking body of her and the beautiful face that's also bear an uncanny resemblance of his late wife. What appears instead was a muscular, male body and a face that's only appropriate for the prettiest of all boys.

"I...-it's a trap!"

"Heh. It's a coincidence that my eyes's color and height has accomodated itself to change into more like her so i could trick you all. Just pull this old robe trick, acts indifference to everyone and voila. Everybody thought i'm Rei Ayanami. Works everytime."

"W...Who are you?"

"Rei. Rei of the Star of Justice."

"Star of Justice?"

"Yes. And i'm going to bring the justice for Ayanami...by killing you. Such a poor soul...turned into a puppet who struggled just to decide anything that's not came as an order."

"Ah, i see. It seems that somehow...Rei's soul crossed it's path with you, and you took her place instead. And somehow, your soul made her body changed into...you."

"Yes. And as i said, Commander of NERV, it's time to end your game. I'm pretty sure that little boy also suffered from you. All just to revive your wife back...such a selfish desire."

"It would took more than this to stop me from reunited with my wife, Rei the Justice."

The Commander then pulled a gun from the desk, and with several seconds, he pulled the trigger after he directed the barrel of the gun to the head of Rei. His body's no longer stand there. But it's not laying down dead, either.

He was nowhere to found. In fact, he maybe not dead yet.

"Where's his body?"

"Here."

"Nani-"

"SUUUUUUOOH!"

Gendo's vision are now sliced. And so his head too.

As soon as his body hit the floor, so does the existance of Gendo Ikari.

No last words from him. Commander of NERV has been murdered by the mutated clone of his wife.

Epilogue

With the death of the Commander of the NERV, Rei now set his foot into killing the members of the SEELE. The Third Impact was averted by his South Dipper Waterfowl Fist alone. The JSDF never attacked Geofront. Their commander was a fan of Fist of the North Star, and he knew better.

Meanwhile, the seventeenth Angel, Tarbis, would get his beautiful death at the hand of the other Rei. His last words to Rei were to protect the Lilim as the progenitor of Lilith. Manly tears from Rei were sheds. Tender tears came from Shinji and the others. They never pointed the fact that this Rei was not the...Rei.

The real Rei Ayanami got stuck into the wasteland of Hokuto No Ken. Luckily, her AT Field came in handy to kill all the gangs that tried to get their hands on her. She became the teacher of the new fist: Firudo No Terrora. Somehow, Bat and Lin became her successor. She kept wondering to her death if the world really went into Third Impact...or something close to it. Like Near Third Impact. Or even Fourth.

Rei of the Star of Justice succeeded in rebuilding the psyche of the childs, and now that the peace has been achieved, he decided to become a psychiatrist. He helped countless childrens and adults in his career. He got hooked up with Ritsuko after she managed to returned him into his original height. Steamy, passionate night were normal experience for them. Rei's definitely better than Gendo in..intimacy, although his name sometimes was a turnoff for her.

* * *

 _Omake 2 (finally, an omake that related with the story!  
_

* * *

"So, Shinji...are you ready for the truth?"

"Yes, Kaji-san."

"Okay. So, here it goes."

Shinji has faced lots of cruel twists in his story that dented and shredded his will to life. His father cruelly used and dismissed him after he seemingly tried to reestablished his relationship with his surviving family member. His seemingly opposite redhead was proved to be mentally just as screwed up as him and had a similarly rough childhood. His distant blue haired faux-friend proved to be nothing but a part of dispensable clones. Those were just some of the moments that screwed his psyche, which he thanked the man in front of him that gladly want take him back on the track.

But even after all those twists, he's still found on the verge of confusion on the revelation that Gendo Ikari, commander of NERV is secretly a pimp.

And he's ready to blame his new light of hope for all of that.

"My father's what?!"

"A pimp."

"A Pimp? My father is a big daddy? It doesn't make sense..."

"No, Shinji. It makes just as much sense as that rubber ugly duckling's story about his quest of finding the ogre's bathtub, so he can be filled with muds and onions all day. I wonder how i could make that story after i saw Shrek's marathon, but i'm glad that i did."

"...What?"

"Nevermind. By the way, Shinji, it should be obvious for you since the beginning. Why else does the guy keeps hiring hotties if he acts so cold and calculated? I mean, look! Your first day in NERV, and you already meet three beautiful babes out there."

"..."

"And after that, you met Maya and Asuka, and got to live with Asuka and Misato! You're a very lucky guy, Shinji. If i was you, i would already scored with at least one of them."

"Kaji..."

"And did you get a good look at the female plug suits? I could've swear that thing's actually some kind of fetish suit for bedroom purpose. They were not just skintight like the males one, man. They accentuated the...assets! Oh, Shinji. You should've seen the picture of Misato and Akagi wore a mock plug suit before Aoba stole them from me and accidentally burned it when he playing with himself, firecrackers, feathers and lots of cream."

"Kaji. I think i heard enough, and know too much right now."

"And do you know that there's another Rei's clone tank? And the purpose for it was solely to get some profit from selling them? Some man were really lonely after all. They need something like an angel to cuddled to. He even has a plan to modified and sold them as celebrity in alternate universe! She could make a trend in entertainment industry!"

With that final knowledge, and the image of hundreds of Ayanamis selling 'flower' on their plugsuit, Shinji fainted at 0.04 seconds mark.

 _...Okay. I'll left the part about Uber Pimp and Prince for now._

 _Sauces 3  
_

* * *

"Then so be it. Thank you for your assistance...Shinji. Farewell."Said Rei, finally called him by the first name.

 _I'm sorry, Rei. I have to lie to you._

The needle has finished in giving it's liquid into Rei's body. Rei was waiting for her return into nothingness. She was ready. After all, it was her choice to denied the world to give itself into nothingness. It was her wisdom.

But the images that came to her told her otherwise. They didn't took her away. They gave her something instead.

It's called pain.

Now, the blue-haired girl found herself screaming violently, with painful experience that she never tasted before. Her body snapped back into her bed with such a force that a wood from it's support was bended from it.

"Rei, what's wrong? REI!"

The girl now clutched in pain, cringed while twisting violently on her bed. Her body would soon found itself convulsed on the floor, tried to bring down her nerv into normal again. But she kept trashed around her room, without any indication that she would slowed down soon.

Shinji, who just manipulated the content of her liquid, now found himself at the most genuine situation where he had to make an apology. He tried to make Rei calmed down for several times, without any success. His heart sank. He wanted to help her just like Kaji did to him, not to make the situation became worse.

Of course, Kaji needs to destroy the drama in this heart-wrenching minutes.

"Hey, Shinji! How is it going?"

"How is it going? Why, yes! Everything's fine, Kaji! Except for the fact that Rei now whimpering on the floor worst than Pazuzu from Exorcist!"

"What? She should be not like that! The side effect should be like when you shallowed your seed of truth: None at all!"

"So, what's actually happened here?"

"Can you read the pill description?"

"...Gendo and Fuyutsuki's manokini ads?"

"HOLY Fuck! I gave you the wrong stuff!"

"My eyes!The AT-Field do nothing!"

And then, Rei exploded.

"Um, Kaji?"

"...We can rebuild her."


	3. One Wicked Angel

Disclaimer: I don't own Evangelion and related things, including Anno's life and his depression. Also, yes, i still hate Q with all my life.

Also, i made one reviewer confused. YAY!

Here's some summary and explanation, in case some of you get lost too (no offense for him. I once created a story like this, and my aunt, who is college graduate, was very confused midline):

The story was set after Kaworu appeared, in a world where the traditional angels and god were truly exist. While most thing -aside from Shinji's bond with Kaji was stronger than the original. and Rei had some interactions with Kaji- stayed the same, many things that happened in the background were different. In short:

1\. Kaji had his own agendas, now a prophet, survived from his assassination, and had many tools in his disposal that enough to fight SEELE.

2\. SEELE's members secretly made alliance with other member. Distrust between each others grew as the time goes on, and they don't believe their own agendas due to an accident with God and Kaji that was not in the scenario...or is it?

3\. Lilith's organs were harvested for the use and research of SEELE, as well as to gain control of Lilith in the Third Impact.

4\. Rei III's body was custom made by Kaji's organization. Instead of yet another Yui's salvaged remains that was 'cloned and modified' to accomodate Lilith's soul, she was carefully made from the donor of honorable soldiers as well from some of her stolen DNA through various methods, ensured her stability and survival from the negative effects that came as the carrier of the soul of Lilith, and for symbolism that she was truly given a chance to become her own person. In short, the body, and this Rei, unlike her previous incarnation, was 'special'.

Irony is the theme of the story, as you can see from Rei III's new purpose and how she was made. You can see it as the story goes on. I chose it because in a biblical story where Lilith was Adam's first wife, she refused to submit to him, bickered with him and considered herself to be equal with him. And yet we all know how submissive Rei was. So...there you go again.

PS: Need beta readers.

* * *

"The dead sea scrolls, a set of self-fulfilling prophecies-"

The unshaven man stopped, as someone materialized in front of him out of sudden. He then continued his self-mumblings, as if he has expected the other man to interrupted him at this very moment.

"Made by you. For the joke of humanity. For your own gain."

The man, still standing at the gaze of the other man who layed down in front of him, only gave him another gaze with a silence. Their expression contrasted each others.

"I hate you."

The clearly hostile, yet still undermined reaction, the scowl,and the unspoken hatred from the eyes of his interlocutor were still not enough to wipe the smirk grin from the devil himself.

"Yes, you do. You all do. WE, all do." Said him, lowered his tone at his third sentence.

With that, their room was filled with silence of animosity, solely from one source of Ryoji Kaji's soul.

"The girl has made her decision." Continued him. And again.

"She's going to stay alive for her own sake."

"It is my decision and her for Rei to stay in this world." Kaji answered as if he knew the pointless question of the man in front of him. Some degree of his animosity from his body languages has lowered enough to maintain a normal conversation, but the hatred from his face was still visible.

"Yes. I know. But wouldn't it take much shorter time to... just let her killed herself, you know." Said the devil with many names, as cynical as possible.

"Yes. It is."

"Blunt to the point, eh?" Said him, materialized a cup of coffee to drink it before it vanished after only several seconds, as to mock something in the world.

"So why you chose the harder way, if the end of the road from both branch of story is still the same, The aversion of the end to all meaning?"

Kaji sighed. He knew that he only tested him, and it's not the first time for Satan to mocked him, but it's still annoyed him for reasons.

"People did stupid things for the happiness of the others. Haven't you heard about sacrifice for the sake of the others, or as the prince of satan, you cannot comprehend the concept itself?"

Satan only laughed at this. But then he decided to give his real response.

"Yes. I know. I used to be angel too, Mortal. Don't forget that."

"I never will." Said Kaji, as if there was any point he wanted to point to his opposite of conversation.

"Selflishness and selflessness are one of our first study concept after he, the god created the concept of emotion. So, we all know. Also, isn't the concept of Ayanami killed herself for the sake of the world also a heroic sacrifice in itself?"

"It is. But i've told you that people did stupid things for the others. Beside, i don't see it as the perfect way for all of us. The world is saved, yes, but people still hurt from it."

"Ah, now we're talking about business. Logic. And a solid one in that." Said Satan who also snapped his finger, now sitting on the chair beside the bed's comfort.

"Tell me. What's wrong with the death of vessell for Lilith's soul?" He continued.

"A lot."Said his opposite of conversation, before the man continued.

"SEELE and Gendo went postal, jeopardizing the life of the NERV employees and the others due to this newly...found problem. There are no lesson to learn from the whole Second Impact fiasco but that life is painful. No faith of the heaven and god would be restored. No story for uplifting the moral of the mankind. Yet another unecessary damage to Shinji...Should i go on?"

"Ah. The last part. My favorite conflict of this whole mess."Said Satan, ignored the question.

"It's interesting to see the anti-chirst walling over his problem," He continued, also making the point of Shinji as Anti-christ,"when out of the three kids, he experienced the least harmful of the madness. At least he still met his father after a long time, and he didn't has the experience of enduring the insanity of his own mother, that was ended with the ending act of the suicide from her own mother, with the result was seen by her own eyes. Or worse, he didn't experience the way to live in the world as a clone that violated many human ethics from her own existance alone, without any real purpose from herself. It's enigmatic for me. On one hand, it's truly understandable for him to goes...bonker. On the other hand, and logic, he also deserved to be called...selfish."

Disturbed by this fact, that Shinji's suffering in the beginning is still the least of the worse from the Childrens, as well as Satan pointed Shinji as the anti-christ himself, the prophet then asked one of the giver of his power a very vital question.

"Logically, what prevented you from serving the god again?"

Satan didn't answered him instantly. For the first time in Kaji's own experience, the ultimate sinner stumbled with his own mouth before he managed to make it speak for him.

"Have you heard about Id, Ego and Superego?"

"Ah. Mr. Freud. How is he doing in hell?" Said Kaji sarcastically.

"Better than you thought." Said him with a small grin decorated his face for a short time. There was a hint of sadness behind the smile.

"The three most powerful angels. Michael, Gabriel and Me. Ego, Superego, and Id. Three of the first angels He created are us."

"So, you're the embodiment of the wildest desire for the angels. I shouldn't be surprised."

"Yes. More or less. Or rather, i'm the result of a corruption, a flaw in the process for that desire." He frowned.

"To become god?"

"No. To understand god to serve him better. The will to become the god is the result of said corruption."

"For what? The reason for the corruption, i mean?"

"From the believe that the God himself is imperfect. For the fact that i even cannot understand him from the day i thought of it to now. And i still do. As day and time keep passing me, my hatred toward him was keep building itself, and when he created Adam as the new earth's progenitor, a weak, small, squishy creature compared to us...my hatred errupted."

"So you want to replace him for that reason only? For something you cannot truly understand? From jealousy?"

"It's not easy..."

"So why don't you just leave it from your mind?"

"I SAID IT'S NOT EASY!"

The silence this time engulfed in them, with uncertainty and guilt seduced it to come for them. The lord of darkness then spoke again, abruptly changed their topic.

"Rei Ayanami. Her transformation into humanity's still incomplete. Her body's related to no one else now but her truly, but her soul is still belong to Lilith, and you purposefully left her angelic DNA for good reasons. What are you going to do about it, when the war has ceased to exist?"

Kaji not answered it immediately, decided to find the vaguest answer he could find first.

"It's depending on her. That's all i can say."

"So, is it some kind of cheesy ending where she declared her own independence that Lilith got scared away from her?"

"Perhaps. Or it involved some kind of ultra convulted technology like we did to her."

They then laughed. For the first time, the atmosphere in that room felt lighter.

"You, know, Lucifer...You're not that bad as a guy."

"Sin aside, you mean." Said him, self depreciated himself.

"Well, yeah. Still...what do you planned here?"

"I just want to tell you, that it's not just the artifact of god that will play their part in this."

"You meant, that there's more than just the red sea scrolls that were came from hell itself?" Kaji's expression changed back into where it was in the beginning.

"Yes. Some people have found one of them. I don't know who, but all i know, is that someone just probed it. I don't think that they have activated it, but i'm sure that it's now on their hand. And that alone, is a very critical situation, my friend."

"This stuff sounds like your version of pandora's box, Lucifer. What did it had to deserves the fear from the prince of hell himself, that you feared to even come close to understand the scene behind it's dissapearance?"

"It's acted like the Thirteenth angel, but it also sucked the other artifacts and the mind of the angels should they came close to it. It was basically a brainwashing method for the angels. That's why i cannot fully understand where it's belong now, for i fear the loss of my mind should i even use my power to come near close of it."

"Well, thanks for help." Kaji said, as he also grinned.

"No need to be a jerk, prophet. Farewell, then."

"Farewell for you, too."

With that, he's gone, leaving Kaji with his own. Wondered in his mind for unknown minutes, he then talked to himself.

"Well, this's going to be interesting. And harder than i thought." Said Kaji, both for his mission...and his new look at Satan.

 _Shinji...Rei...congratulations._

* * *

Shinji was still couldn't believe at what kind of life Rei was endured. For her whole existance, she was really an embodiment of nothingness, something she wished to be. But now, she was free to choose her own future.

 _You're no more his doll. You're no more a mere imperfect memoir of my own mother. You're Rei Ayanami._

The young man was just awakened from his sleep, layed down on the floor. His female companion, still sleeping, was insisted for him to sleep together in the bed, but he refused her offer, not for the fear of the warmness from her, but rather for her own goodness, in that he knew that she needed the best rest for the rest of the night, for her newest experiences had burnt out her mind, waiting for it's own reconstruction at the end of the sleep. Of course, he also embarassed from the concept alone.

"Rei...i'm going to make you happy." Said Shinji quietly. His hope and just as importantly, his own future has been found in her.

He then stole a glance at her face, something that he hadn't done since his awakening. He saw something as beautiful as the moon itself.

Rei, was smiling in her sleep. For the first time, she dreamed.

 _Rei smiling...is beautiful. Rei's smile...can melt the heart of an angel..._

Out of instinct, he came closer to her side, out of his desire to get closer to the beautyness that filled his eyes and mind. As the stunning smile kept exposed the beauty of the owner, the young man couldn't helped himself to keep stroking her hair softly, both to see the more of her face, and to enjoy the sensation from the soft texture of her azure hair. His own face was also smiling from the sensation, while his eyes were locked with Rei's own red, crimson eyes. He then kneeled to get a better look at her, and then he nuzzled her hair, whiffing the smell of the Angel in front of him..

 _She's so beautiful...And she smells nice, too. Like flower from the gate of Eden...How appropriate.  
_

Shinji felt his truly first time of falling in love. His heart thumped hard, and the temperature of his body raised up. His crush that was gone after the revelation regarding her origin, was now replaced with something even stronger. A new love just blossomed once more in the bleak, cynical Tokyo-3. The boy couldn't helped himself but to enjoy and savor this very moment.

After some minutes that felt like forever, Shinji's smile turned into a frown, remembered the fact that his own father become the man he's right now due to the death of his love. He didn't want to fall into something as horrible as him, and most importantly, hurt her. Rei. Perhaps it's better if he leave her alone after all of this, so they won't hurt each others. It's the best for her happiness...

Then the seed of the truth told him the truth behind love: It's something to fight for. It's something to protect against any kind of harm that could be done to each others. Most importantly, it's something to share together.

 _No. I won't lose her. Not again. Never._

The girl then moved her body out of her dream's instinct, drawed her face very...closely to Shinji's own face. He flipped out from the surprise, but managed to drowned his voice to avoid her waking up.

 _Oh, heaven in hell and kami-sama! We're so close!_

After Shinji regained his composure, he kneeled over her again, to once again enjoyed the sight from her appearance. He saw her face again, and a new desire popped out of his head.

Shinji wanted his first kiss. Out of his first will.

 _A...a little peck wouldn't hurt anyone, right?_

Their face come closer again, but this time, it was Shinji who initiated this. Only several inches now the gap between their faces.

 _C...closer...closer..._

But Shinji was still a pussy. He turned his head away, just before their lips met each other.

 _I...i can't do it. Not without her-  
_

...And then Ayanami experienced her first time of jumped from the bed out of a dream. She accidentally kissed Shinji's cheek.

There were two results from it.

First was Shinji blushed furiously from it. Never was his face looked so red. He jumped out of shock again, made him too far away to save Rei.

Second, and the reason for why Rei needed saving, was that Rei experienced her first time of falling from a bed, and awakened from it, back of her head first. For some reasons, her body kept rolling after the...cheek accident.

It was painful, to say the least.

"R..Rei! Are you okay?" Said Shinji, as he came closer to caress her head again, but this time, it's out of concern.

"Oww...What happened?"

"You fell from the bed, Rei. You dreamed, right?"

"Yes...i guess."

"So, um...what are we going to do now?"

"I believe that we need to eat." Said Rei. Her tone of voice has coming back into her monotone again, but this time she sounded less. Not the volume, but the icy tone.

"Ah, breakfast time! Yeah. Right. So, umm...What do you want, Rei? Pancake?"

"Do you want pancake for breakfast?"

"Yeah...if you want to."

"Then that would be preferable."

"Okay. Just wait here, Rei."

And then Shinji gone into the kitchen, looking for the ingredients for the pancake. Rei, had some time in her bed, realized something.

First, fell from the bed room was painful.

Second, she couldn't remember anything from her sleep. Which was sad, as somehow she felt...happy from it.

Third, she was sure that her lips touched something before.

Something...soft...

"I'm sorry, Rei. We're running out out flour."

 _Then again, she lives like this...I don't think she ever even bought flour at all._

"It's okay, Shinji."

"I'll get some from the nearby store, then. I know one that still open after your...you know."

Just before he made his way into the front door, a pair of arms stopped him on the track, held his right arm tight.

It was Rei's.

"No...don't go..."

Shinji's heart beat risen up again at this sudden action from Rei. His cheek turned red from the blood flow for the second time.

"...Why?"

 _I don't want to lose you again..._

"Sector 2 will find out about our...close proximity and reported it to Commander as soon as you stepped out of the door. He won't find this newly departure of scenario as something...tolerable. He will do something terrible to us had he know what happened last night."

"...I see."

Some of Shinji's part wished that it was not the reason for Rei held his arm so tight. Something that's more... out of logic. Like, love, or...

 _Ah, what am i doing? It's not like Rei was lied about her concern regarding my safety. Wait, that means she cares about me, so, is she...Oh, God! Why am i keep thinking like this!_

It took several minutes before one of them realized that Rei had held his arm longer than necessary.

"Umm...Rei, i think you can release me now." Said Shinji, with his already bright blush became even brighter, to the point that his temple also blushed slightly.

Upon this realization, Rei awkwardly released his arm. Both blushed slightly from this comforting, and yet somewhat embarassing moment. Well, for Shinji, 'slight' would be an understatement. For the first time, Shinji's eyes refused to even take a look at Rei out of embarassment.

Shinji wondered how many times he would blushed again today, for he already experienced this for three times in less than an hour.

If only he knew that Rei also blushed...

"So, Rei...do you mind if you're the one who go shopping?"Said Shinji, still refused to face Rei.

"...Not now."

"Why?"

 _I still want to savor my time with you._

"I'm not hungry yet."

This time, Rei lied.

"...So why do you want to eat before?"

"I believe that's because it's in my schedule." Lied Rei.

"Oh."

The silence after this were not lasted long, as Shinji's cellphone rang.

"Misato?"

"Yes, Shinji. It's me. So...how are you two doing?"

"We're just about to get some breakfast."

"Oh, okay."

A mischievous grin smired face of Misato as she continued her phone talk.

"Say...it seems that it's not just some breakfast that you get, huh?"

"...Huh?"

"You and Rei. Have you two done...something else last night?"

"What? Of course no-"

Shinji then remembered that last night, he and Rei hugged each others tightly for many minutes, as if the world would end if they released their arms from each others

Shinji blushed again. Much more furiously than ever.

"Ha! I knew it! I knew that you two are an item now!" Misato spoke loudly, to the point that Rei could barely heard her tease. It was as if his silence was told Misato things he didn't want anyone else to know.

"Mi-Misato!"

"Rei and Shinji, sitting in the tree. K-I-S-S-I-"

"Misato, stop!"

"Aww, you're no fun, Shinji."

"Come on, Misato! She nearly broke down from shock last night! She trashed around violently and had many mood swings! It's not funny to see her like that!"

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry, Shin-chan. I admit, it's rather tasteless should i knew it."

Shinji was slightly shocked at Misato's rather...underreaction at Rei's predicament.

"I trust him for everything he does, you know?"

"...So do i." Said Shinji firmly, even with some of his doubts emerged.

"Still, you didn't do anything else in this morning to her, eh?" Said Misato, tried to lighten up the atmosphere again.

"O..of course, not!" Lied Shinji.

"Be careful, Shinji. God don't appreciate a liar."

"GYAAH!"

Shinji screamed in shock at the sudden sight of Kaji appeared in the apartment, carried groceries in both his hands. Rei also gasped in shock, although not loud enough to be heard by anyone else.

"How did you-"

"Alive, or appear out of sudden, Ayanami-chan?"

"...Both."

"Well, let's just say that as a prophet of God, i have a lot of privileges and benefits that come from it. But unfortunately, cheating death is not one of them. So, no, i'm not back from the dead."

Rei just got further confused by Kaji's explanation. Her expression changed slightly.

"Well, we have time to explain myself regarding things that happened around here and there. But first, i'm sure that it's time for breakfast, right Shinji?"

"Oh, yeah. I see that you brought some groceries. You planned to eat here, Kaji-san?"

"I have planned everything today, Shinji."

"Well, umm...let's see what we got here." Said Shinji, also got confused, as well as scared by this planning part from Kaji. What the hell he's going to do, anyway?

Indeed, after he became the prophet, Kaji has became a very competent planner, possibly even more than Gendo in some areas. This part wasn't fully appreciated even by himself, though, for he found some of his plans as necessary evil at best, and would be monstrous had he wasn't into the mission of god himself.

Using these childrens in this war again was one of those things that he found terrible, but he had his reasons.

"...Agent Kaji."

"Yes, Ayanami-chan?"

"I require explanations for this."

"...Badly?"

"Yes."

Of course, Rei needed explanations for other things, too. For some reasons, she felt comfortable around Shinji. She had deducted that she wanted to be around him for a while. What she hadn't deducted yet, is the reason. The one that she found felt to her as something...illogical.

"...Well, i suppose explaining some things before we eat would not hurt. Allright, Ayanami-chan. Why we don't sit here first?"

She nodded. Then, they sat in the small table, one of the few decorations in Ayanami residence that barely passable in both looks and material quality.

"Allright. Now, what do you want to ask?"

* * *

"...Wow..."

Both Childrens could only stared at Kaji, drawn by his story of the background business he had as the prophet of God, and in Shinji's case, his mouth was wide open in disbelief, tried to digest every words that Kaji said.

"...And so i'm here today, ready to ignite the last phase of my plan."

"...And what it would be?"

Kaji stared at Rei as her question sank in. He spoke soon.

"To fight. To win the new war that soon will begin."

Needless to say, both Childrens were became confused again. But Shinji knew the implications of this.

He had to fight again. Like before. And got hurt again.

"...Why?"

He was more ready now, but the pain was still haunted him.

"Why you chose us to fight?"

At the end, he was still a kid.

Kaji was in silence, didn't had the words yet to explain the reason. But he found those soon, before Shinji spoke again for his demand.

"Shinji-kun, Ayanami-chan...do you remember what happened after you two got the letter?"

The letter... He...

The letter... He...

"...I nearly drove Nagisa-san away from me..." Said Shinji, in disbelief that he nearly done it. He was only trying to become his friend. Why did he nearly cut their friendship just because he couldn't explain things? How hypocritical of him...

"...I nearly made Shinji-kun assisted my suicide..." Said Rei, also in disbelief. She realized that her sacrifice may worked, but it would hurt the others, again. She believed that it was the best for everyone, but now...she was not sure anymore.

Kaji smiled weakly at them, knowing that he just hit the mark.

"So...what did that tell you?"

"...We nearly made stupid decision...that will just hurt the others..."Rei answered. The wisdom finally made it's presence to her.

"Correct."

Kaji stood from the chair, as if he tried to make his presence clearer.

"You two are hurt too much from all of your pain, your soul are broken beyond belief. Shinji, you desire the warmness of the others, but you're afraid that you will just hurt them when they gave it."

"Hedgehog Dillema."

"Yes. And let's just say that the events around your life after you become the EVA pilot are just simply... too traumatizing to be fixed in the short time. And Rei..."

"My upbringing. My origin. They are too much for me to ignore." Said Rei, with a bare hint of sadness in her voice. For Shinji and Kaji, it was pretty obvious.

"Correct. Which is why the seed that Shinji gave to you is just one of many steps for your journed to embrace your humanity."

Rei only blinked. But deep down, she had mixed feelings. She wondered for why this man she barely even knew did so much just to help her. But on the other side, she glad that he did.

"Rei...do you know that the current body that you inhibited, is no more a mere combination of Lilith and salvaged remains of Yui Ikari."

Rei blinked again, and once again, her heart betrayed her emotions.

"Congratulations, Rei. You're your own person now. Your future is just as wide open as us now."

 _I'm...no longer a twisted clone of Yui Ikari.._

 _I no longer have a forced bond...with anyone else..._

 _I'm free to go._

I'm...free...

Tears fell into her cheek.

Tears of joy. It was her second.

"I...i cried again...but i'm happy..."

She remembered last night.

"These tears...it's the same as before..."

She took a glance at the man and boy around her. Tears were ready to fall on the ponytailed man, and they already did for the younger one.

"I'm...sorry..." Said her, still sniffled from her tears.

"No, Rei...They're the same as you."

 _Shinji-kun...He understand me..._

The trio then went into a hug, showed their care for each others. They were happy. Happy that the world, do deserves to be saved after all.

But now, ironically, it was the oldest one that still had doubt. It was when his bowl of tears finally broke out.

 _Shinji...i'm sorry..._

"Shinji, i-"

"I understand, Kaji-san. You have your reason to use us for your plan. I...we trust you."

Kaji's turn to gasped. It's like as if Shinji knew the...truth that deep down, he felt sorry for they still need to fight, still the one that earth depended for it's survival.

"I'm..i'm sorry.."

"Do you have to copied me, Kaji-san?"

It took some moments before it sank in, but the trio broke their hug into a laugh. The atmosphere, however, was still the same one with warm hospitality.

"Rei..you told a joke."

"Yes. My first try. Is...is it good enough?"

"Well, we wouldn't laugh at it if we don't think it's funny, right?"

"I...i guess."

A smile crowned Rei's face at this very moment.

Kaji noticed it. Rei was pretty when she smiled.

"Rei...you should've smile more often."

"You...you like it?"

"Of course we like it. Especially the boy right here..."

Shinji gulped.

 _Oh, great. I forgot that Kaji is just as good as Misato in teasing someone._

"Come on, Shinji. Tell us. Is Rei pretty-no, beautiful when she smile?"

For the many times today, the blood flew through Shinji Ikari's face again.

 _I musn't run away...i musn't run away..._

"Hey, Shinji, where are you going? You know that Section-2 agent will catch us if they see us here, right?"

 _Oh, crap. I can't run away!_

Shinji stopped his track to the apartment door, which he barely made it out, before he returned back to his position before.

 _The...the truth wouldn't hurt, right?_

"Yes, Rei...i think you need to smile more often. You look pretty when you smile."

The honesty that came from Shinji's heart made Rei blushed. She also wondered how many times she blushed today. Meanwhile, Shinji wondered where he got the strength to not stuttered.

"Thank...thank you, Shinji-kun. But i don't think i'm pretty."

Words and gestures of gratitude...they also never came this much from her.

If the situation was on comedy, both man on the room would've rolled their eyes at this obviously false statement.

"...Why?" Said Shinji in disbelief. He didn't know that this girl, unconsciously, also had a low esteem like he was.

At this moment, the wisdom spoke again to her.

Beauty, is in the eyes of the beholder.

"No...forget what i said."

"Well, it's good to see that we managed to clear this, misunderstanding," Said Kaji, chuckled before he continued.

"And if it's the case, no, i don't think your pigmentations, skin, eyes, and hair made you weird. Don't you think so, Shinji?"

"St...stop teasing me!"

"Ahahaha! You're cute when you blushed, Shinji. Isn't that right, Ayanami-chan?"

The girl's blushed like him, made their cheek had the same coloration.

"Don't...don't pick up on her!"

"Ah, we got an overprotective one here, aren't we?"

"It's not funny, Kaji-san!"

"Well, it does. At least for me."

No one responded, far too embarassed from the whole thing, so Kaji took a glance at both boy and girl.

 _Wow. I never see they blushed this hard before. Then again, i never see Ayanami blushed, but still..._

 _Hmm...things are getting more interesting here...But the time is near...  
_

Kaji, used all his will to stop his teases, spoke again for the more urging matter at this very moment.

"Okay. Shinji, Ayanami, i will take you somewhere else, to make you two ready." Said Kaji, with authority in his voice.

"For what?" Said Rei, unflinched by the sudden change of tone from the man's voice.

"The fight. The fight for humanity."

"...I see." Rei responded, before she added.

"But the sector-2 agents will-"

"I know. Which is why i brought one of my little toys here."

Kaji took off his jacket, showed a belt around his waist. He then proceed to place his right thumb at what appear to be a scanner at the right side of the belt.

 ** _Ready_**

A button appeared at the left side of the belt, which Kaji pressed immediately. A black tendrils appeared from the belt, which quickly engulfed Kaji's whole body.

"Wha...what the hell is that?"

That was Shinji's stuttered response, unable to spoke anything else out of his wit. As for Rei, her blank, yet strong, wide, shocked stare was already a good sign for her response on the sight in front of her.

 ** _Transformation, complete._**

At 6 foot and 7 inches, to say that Kaji, or what Kaji had become, was imposing would be an understatement. The design somehow reminded them of the not so fortunate black colored Unit-03, but with many design differences. For example, the torso was both bulkier and reinforced with more layers of thick organic armor, especially the upper area. The red eyes was very long, nearly formed a uni eye. Also, the thing seemed more like a suit instead of biomechanical in nature, something that you wore in combat instead of control, which made the fact that it looked more robotic as ironic.

"Ah...just one of many privileges as the prophet of God."

No response from the kids at all, still stared at the now looked muscular Kaji.

"Hello? Kaji to Ikari! Kaji to Ayanami!" Said him half jokingly to get them out of their trance.

Some stuttering later, Shinji finally responded.

"Uhm...what?"

"Well, first of all, it's still the same Ryoji Kaji that's in this mass of flesh. Second, this is yet another privileges as a prophet for me."

"How...what is going..."

Kaji sighed at this. Really, they were fighting inside biomechanical giant robot, and they gasped at the sight of biomechanical suit?

"Just follow me."

Kaji then gave both childrens a small device for each of them. It was a gemlike stone that looked like an ornament in the chest area of their plugsuit.

"Put it on your chest."

They obliged immediately.

"Uh. This thing stung."

"Yes, Shinji-kun. It did."

Shinji looked at her in disbelief, didn't know if Rei was making a joke or not. As she smiled slightly, he know that she did, which he prompted by returned the smile back. It wasn't a very funny one, but it was a good first try.

"Good. Now, follow me."

With that, Kaji was gone. Or rather, he was gone from the vision of normal human beings. With the activation of the device on their chest, the childrens began to see Kaji in an unique color that they never saw before. As soon as they realized that they were no longer existed in the same color spectrum as the world they saw everyday, they began to follow him.

Despite of Kaji's size, he was surprisingly nimble and silent with his movement, like a big cat who has been trained for all his life to sneak around their preys around their environment, waiting for their opportunity to come. With his unreal agility, Kaji managed to climb down from the top of Rei's apartment to the bottom as quick as possible.

Of course, the same thing couldn't be said for the two childrens. They were panting heavily just from followed Kaji to the basement alone. They barely managed to keep up with him, even with the fact that they tried to run as fast as possible. Realized that they were still human, Kaji slapped his own forehead for his lacks of oversight in this problem.

"Oops. Sorry, guys. I forgot my own strength."

Both Childrens were just panted, still struggled to catch their own breath.

"I'll go easy on you two from now on."

They nodded at his mention, which urged him to continue their journey with ease. Soon, they will found their new purpose and their new use.

* * *

"So..."

"Have you found him?"

"Not yet." A monolith labeled 12 responded. It continued it's answer soon enough to not make it's partner upset. "Although we have a strong suspicion to where the Tsubasa and Protector belts are currently stored."

"Really..."Monolith labeled 13 muttered.

Unlike the usual SEELE meeting, this one was only attended by the already mentioned monoliths, as well as done in a much smaller room. It was clear that this one was done in even more privacy than the others, probably even without the knowledge of the others.

"Yes. And probably, the wearers are also currently reside there." Said the other, as if he felt that another assurance was needed to convince his partner.

"Well, that's good." The monolith said to himself. He then asked again."Have you tell anyone else about it?"

"As far as i know, we're the only owner of this information"

"Real good. Now that's what i want to hear." He grinned to himself.

"I think we're agree that we can prepare for their ambush. We can do it in-"

"No need for preparation." His partner in crime interjected. "Prepare to attack in three hours."

"No-now?" The man stumbled in fear at this, which made his friend felt that it was his time to do some reassuring.

"Twelve, need i remind you that we have an advantage of surprise in our side with this intel, should we take this chance?"

"No. We don't. We never have surprise on our side. Surprise is in his side. Surprise never leave the side of Ryoji Kaji...or what's left from him. It's what we actually truly fear from him: His unpredictability."

"Oh. You sure?"

"Well...perhaps we can make him tastes his own medicine." The man said it, as after some reconsideration. It was foolish to fear a man from a baseless assumption, a rumor...or was it?

"So, you're in?"

"I'm always in."

"Good. For power."

"For us." Both man did imaginary toast for both of them, saluted themselves for their bravery or recklessness. That was before one of them spoke again.

"So...who's gonna be the bait?"

* * *

"Well...here we are." Said the man in black suit, as he undo his cloaking.

They arrived at what appear to be a district of Tokyo-3...or rather, the ruin of used to be district. In short, they were at the part where the explosion from the 16th Angel's battle against Unit-00 were not strong enough to turn it into a part of the new artificial lake, but still enough to destroy it into nothing but rubble behind. The place itself was unremarkable outside of being the site of the destruction of the said Angel.

"Kaji...this is-"

"A reminder of me...or what used to be me. My old body's graveyard." Rei said those words, as her head took a dip, looking at the ground. It was a grim remnance of what used to be her, how expendable she was at that time. But it was also when she realized the fact that she wants to be with Shinji, when she first acted out of impulse. She remembered her last memory, seconds before Unit-00 exploded from the inside. It was...

 _Commander?_

 _I...i don't understand._

"I'm sorry, Rei...i didn't meant to reopen the old wound." Said Kaji sadly, as he brushed her head. He mistook her blank shock as sadness instead of confusion. If he was observant enough, he would seen Shinji tried to comfort her by his own way, but Kaji made his move before him, which stopped him from doing so.

He was blushed at the thought that he nearly hugged Rei without any second thought. This time, the man and the girl caught him off.

"Shinji, what's wrong?" Said Rei.

"Umm, the sun! Yeah. I'm tired from running, the heat and all, so..." Lied him, as he stumbled upon his own words.

At this point, there are two thoughts from the man in the area.

The older man planned to get an insulin shots from all these fluff, sugary, oblivious teenager crush.

The younger one prayed to god to stop all these embarassment. His cheeks needed a break for a while.

The girl just blinked, but she knew that he was lied to her. A small blush also colored her cheek, for reasons she still want to found out by herself. She turned away so the others didn't saw her blush. At this point, she has fully understood the concept of embarassment, despite not knowing the reason for why.

The older man finally decided to just get that shot.

"Come on, just get in."

"Whe-" Shinji was interrupted from his question.

The ground shaken from something. Soon, the land opened up, showed a small entrance into another room in the underground.

"How did...?" Shinji wanted to ask, before Kaji interrupted him, rolled his eyes from his disbelief.

"What? Don't tell me you already forgotten that this city was built as a fortress. Of course there will be important places that was built underground. I just secretly converted one of those a personal storage that even SEELE don't know the existance of it."

"So...sorry..."

Kaji sighed. Some old habits wouldn't go away that easily, after all.

"No need for that, Shinji. I'm not scolded you or anything like that."

"Sor-" A black hand covered his mouth, interrupted him.

"Now you're going to do that again. Don't."

The man chuckled a bit to further assured him and make Shinji relaxed, which he succeed in doing so.

"Now, let's get in, shall we?"

* * *

"Now...just relax. Make yourself at home, kay?"

"Okay, Kaji-san!" Said Shinji.

"Hai."

"I'll be back in a moment."

With that, Kaji gone to the hall, left them alone for a while.

The Childrens took a glance at the warehouse that they just entered. It wasn't very big, but it's certainly at the high end of technology, from the look at least. The room could've given NERV a run for their money in term of the futuristic look, with chrome plating at the wall lines, LED lamps and all. And yet, it was bright enough to not look gloomy like the usual kind of building with purpose as warehouse.

"This is extravagant."

"Yes. It is. It seems like Kaji-san has planned all of these since a long time." Said the blue-haired girl.

"Years?"

"Definitely. 5 years at minimum."

Shinji then had a deep look at his face. As time passed by, his face took a turn into a gloomy one.

"Shinji-kun, what's wrong?" Rei asked him, as she saw the pain in his eyes.

"This reminded me when i arrived at Tokyo-3...All of this..."

"May you be more specific, Shinji-kun?"

"The letter...it was my invitation from my father. Kaji-san gave a letter too. When both had uses for me..."

Rei didn't answered or interrupted him, which prompted him to continue.

"When i arrived, i didn't know what i'm going to do, what my father's going to do to me. Now i'm here, and...i also don't know what we're going to do. But i'm sure that the pain will come to me again. I...i don't like the pain, Rei. I don't like the pain from fighting in the EVA. And now..."

She sensed that it was her time to respond, as he went deep into his painful memories again. She felt that she doesn't need to see him in pain again...not after what they went through.

"Really? Don't you have faith in Prophet Kaji's work?"

Shinji gasped in shock at her question. The sense of Deja-vu overwhelmed him from her question. He then asked out of curiosity and amusement.

"Are you going to slap me again?" He countered her by this instead, half-joked from his intent, and somehow half-concerned for himself.

The smile was the answer. He answered by his own.

They then shared a chuckles. At the sight of Rei laughed with him, Shinji's face became dumbfounded at the sight.

"Rei...you laughed. I never see you laughed before."

"Yes...i never laugh before." She answered, before continued herself. "But then again, i never feel panic, cried out of joy, make a joke, or have a good dream before."

"I think so. Man. Oh, man. So many things happened to us in just two days."

"I agree, Shinji-kun. We experienced so many things in these two days for us."

Silence for a while engulfed them, before Shinji broke it again.

"But for some reasons...i trust him."

"Of course you're going to trust him. He had good intentions from the start, and he told us everything we need."

"But for this one..."

"Now, you're going to do that again."

"I just stated a fact, Rei."

"Which doesn't mean that you need to distrust him."

"Okay, okay. You're right. He really meant good for all of us. But Rei...just because you place your faith on your leader, it doesn't mean that you need to completely obey him without any second thought."

"I see."

They didn't talk again for a while, which made the whole thing felt awkward again. This time, it was Rei who broke the silence.

"For the receiver of the seed of truth, you sure don't seem to know the answer for everything."

"And you still have some oversight in your...wisdom." Shinji countered. Not that he was on contest with Rei or anything, just tell the truth.

"Wisdom...truth..."

"Kaji said without wisdom, you'll never know the truth. And without the truth, you cannot use your wisdom."

"So he meant that we're going to learn from each others." Said Rei, as she tilted her head to see his face.

"Yes. Lot of things, like..."

As Shinji turned his head, he became in sight with Rei's face. Their eyes interlocked between each others, instinctively savored the beauty inside of both pair of eyes. Blue meets red, two colors that's so contrast, but has similar purpose. One was color of blood, an important part of life. One was color of sea, water, another important part of life.

After many amount of time passed by, both realized what they were doing. Both turned their head away, with blood flowing through their cheek again.

"Sorry."

"No need for that, Shinji-kun."

Finally, they build enough encouragement to look at each others again after many minutes. Again, Rei was the one who broke the silence.

"Shinji...even if there's similarities between when you arrived at Tokyo-3 and now, there are things that's different for the better of you."

"You're right, Rei-chan. For one thing...Kaji was nice, unlike the certain Commander of NERV." Said him while chuckled.

"That's one thing." Rei said. "What else?"

"I don't know, but this one, i have...hope? Ready to take things that will be thrown at me?"

"You said before that you don't like the pain."

"I didn't said that i love pain now. I just think now, that some sacrifice...maybe necessary, if you can reach the happiness. For me, and for the others."

"That's good, Shinji-kun. We did learn new things."

"Yeah...i guess so."

"Well, there's one thing that's different from before. Something that we have, that we...might share together."

"What is it, Rei-chan?"

Rei didn't answered him. All she did was to put her hand at Shinji's, gently held it.

This time, Shinji only blushed for a very short time, as courage found it's way inside him. As he returned the gesture by his own, he knew that words were not needed to answer him, for he already knew from the start.

 _I have you now. I said that this morning, that i won't lose you again. And i promise, that you won't lose me, either.  
_

Meanwhile, Rei was on her own thought. She remembered the line that she read from one of the book.

 _'We were given two hands to hold. Two legs to walk. Two eyes to see. Two ears to listen. But why only one heart? Because the other was given to someone else. For us to find.'_

 _When you touched me first last night...i was scarred. I don't know what i felt When you touched me again, i feel relieved. When you-no, i touched you this morning, i feel...warmth. Now, i touch you again, and you...recipocrate the warmth that i feel. Shinji-kun, i think...i found where our other heart belong.  
_

Unknown to them, some people were watching them from the hidden camera. They were smiling at the lovely sight from the two, as Shinji brought his other hand to touch the hand that Rei used. They faced each others, as their eyes locked into staring contest, caught at the beauty that they saw. These two deserved happiness after all horrible things that happened to them, and finally, they found it now.

 _Good job, Rei. Now, you two are ready._ Said Kaji, smiled that these two. Their lips did not met each others, only their head nodded at agreement with smile on their face.

* * *

"Allright, you two. Doctor Reed and Sarif will explain everything for you, and get you ready."

"Well, at least we have some training now unlike before." Said Shinji dryly.

"And we don't need to bail you with her right now." Said Kaji who dryly chuckled to himself. "Well, what i want for you two, is to follow every instruction from them. Got it?"

"Hai."

"I'll be going for now."

With that, Kaji went to the outside, making out his new apointment.

"There he goes again. I wonder where he's going now?"

"Definitely something important, Shinji-kun."

"Well, of course. I just hope that he will explain some more things to us, but it seems that he wants to take it slowly."

"I think that it's already satisfactory for us, Shinji-kun. Kaji-san already covered the basic for us. We could ask about other subjects in our mind once he finished his current task."

Indeed. Now, they learnt that they were going to fight like in the EVA, in the suit like Kaji's. The prospect, strangely enough, was not as scary as Shinji thought, or made him backed down at the fear of getting hurt again, despite the fact that like EVA, they also going to get the pain that the EVA got, even if the pain had been reduced just to make the pain as nothing but a way to point which part of the body that was really injured badly. Even the fact that

Indeed. It was all thanks to the seeds that they received. In a way, the seed gave them another view at their problem, sometimes even indirectly 'spoke' to them to ease their mind and gave the necessary insight. They also had another function that's unique to each others, and in a way, complemented the weakness of the user.

For Shinji, the seed functioned to give him the truth about his and the others's problems. In a way, it gave him the solution regarding his hedgehog dillema; No need to worry to hurt yourself or the others, as long as you can trust each others that you meant good in the first place. People hurt each others not because of their presence, but because they didn't try to understand the reason they hurt in the first place. Perhaps the pain wouldn't just dissapear instantly, but at least, you and them will understand each other's pain. And now, he knew a few that would do the same.

Rei's seed of wisdom, on the other hand, had a purpose to awaken the individuality inside her. The result was quiet satisfying, and perhaps slightly faster for the expectation due to her nature., but in short, Rei now had basic understanding of emotions, from negative to positive, and now she learnt to express and experience out of the box. She began by the simpler ones who contend to bring the positive reactions from people with ease and low risk, such as laughing and smiling. She even managed to make several jokes that caught the others off guard. The seed also functioned as protection from the negative influence that came as the carrier of Lilith's soul, making sure that her mind and body would stay healthy, and with her new, stronger and more stable body, her medication would not be needed again.

However, the most unique feature of the seeds was the fact that both seeds were symbiotic in a sense. In effect, Rei and Shinji's interractions would make more impact to each others in comparison with the others. This was the reason for why Kaji waited for a while to explain everything. Not only a bond between each others would make them stronger to face the oddities mentally, he also waited until their bond was strong enough so they would not scared and felt used by the symbiotic bond between them.

 _No. We do care for each others. He was right. Why do i even thought to ask if we really did care for each others in the first place?  
_

"Allright, enough talking for now. We have to move. Shinji, you follow Sarif. Rei, follow me." The words from the rather gruff man broke away Shinji from his train of thought.

"Hai."

As they walked away to their, Shinji made the last talk to Rei.

"Well...this is it." He sighed. "The new chapter of our life."

"...The new chapter of our life" Said her, cutely tilted her head as a sign of confusion. This time, Shinji only gave a small smile at her for this lovely sight.

"It means that we're going to start our life all over again, Rei. Got it?"

"I understand." Said her, as they began to follow their fellow apointed instructor. Her mind began to race at it's own thought.

 _New heritage...new purpose...Shinji was right. It is a new beginning for us._

 _Shinji...i hope you can teach me.  
_

* * *

"So you came after all...prophet."

The man with crooked nose was at the other side of the room with Kaji, who was still at his suit from before. He was 3 hours away from Tokyo-3.

"What do you want?"

"Your alliance. And one piece of Lilith's body."

"...That's probably the worst, most irrational demand ever made. And you didn't say 'please'...How rude." Said Kaji, as he prepared his stances.

"Oh. Is that so?" Said him as he snapped his finger, showed an observation from the camera.

The camera showed several troops approaching the warehouse where the Childrens were at. A medium scale attack was soon to be commenced.

"Give in to my demand, or i shall destroy the place and the belts. You make the call, or it would me that make it instead...'please?'"

Kaji took some of his time, not answered him immediately. Needless to say, the man was not amused. Hypocritical for someone who just did some mocking to his opposite of conversation.

"I don't have much of patience, prophet." Said him, as he began to approach the phone inside the room. At this, Kaji hastily decided.

"Okay. I'll call them."

The man grinned, as the prophet make a call to the occupant of the warehouse.

"Yes, it's me. Yeah, i know the situation. Listen, i need you to give the belts to these soldiers. Oh, and the Lilith too. I'm sorry, what? Well, then give them something good. Can't let you guys get blown up by this."

The conversation became one sided, as the man in the black suit portayed his role as the listener rather nicely and quietly, with only 'uhm' and 'yes' as the sign that he really listened. It would take 30 seconds before he spoke again.

...Make the wearers deliver it personally, instead? Hmm. Yeah. That will do."

With that, the call was ended.

"I'm sorry, my friend, but it seems that we...running out of Lilith's, so we'll deliver the belt wearers for...assurance that our deal will never be betrayed by us in the first place."

"Heh. You make Lilith as if it's nothing but another delivery take-order."

"Well, glad that you found my sense of humor as something amusing."

"Indeed. Still, i don't think i have time for this kind of talk." Said him, as the door that led to the underground warehouse opened.

"Well, what else i can do?"

"How about some talk about what this suit can do." He said as he approached Kaji. "We have our eyes in this thing, Kaji...or what mimicked him now, if one of our theory is correct."He said, as he rolled his eyes. He then continued himself.

"We have read the report about how you survived of the...assassination, and got bonded by this thing as a result. Indeed. What kind of fortune do you have to be resurrected as a super soldier, backed with wealthy investor and all, and now, you and the wearers...are on your own holy war now. So, my friend...what kind of secret do you have, inside your head?"

"I'm sorry, friend, but bargain time is over."

"I see. Then what shall i do to-"

The sound of human in terror, screaming for retreat as the sound of bullets and explosions from the speaker loudly filled the room. As the man with crooked nose looked back into his monitor frantically, he truly understood the horror that they faced.

Two man, 6ft at least, mowed down the force against them with ease. One colored green with purple-ish stripes, while the other was yellow.

"Oops."

The man glared at the very half-hearted confession from the man who...screwed up things.

"You..."

"What? Don't blame me. I didn't order anything on them. Although, perhaps i should tell them to not take the matters on their own hands. Then again, you should have known better."

The man knew at this time that he was beaten at this very moment. He had no chance since the beginning, and as he said before, the element of surprise was always at the messenger's side since the beginning, and it seems that it had not chosen to change side for now.

Now, he had to chose. To stay with his own twisted definition of obedience to free will, or to finally gave up.

He laughed.

"What's so funny?"

The man stayed like that, showed his refusal and realization of his fate at the same time. All for the power.

The power. It was the reason for him.

"It's ironic." He paused for a while. "We all here since the beginning were playing safe, angered by the smallest deviation that we couldn't prevent, and we got here, near the end of the world. Just a few more steps. Just...a few more steps..."

The man in front of him was never flinched since the beginning.

"And now, one man tried to do things on his own way, and he had to pay the price for it. Heh. I blew it up, aren't i?"

Still not answering, Kaji tried to get close to the man who just slipped away from his sanity.

"I have nothing to lose now, Prophet. My own man were not trust me that much, either."

Heard the sorrowful, cracked voice of the man, Kaji decided to get even closer to him, tried to take him out before he harmed himself.

The man still refused his fate.

"But i still had one more chance."

Kaji backed from his position as he saw what he has feared from one of the consequences from the meddling with the scenario.

Sachiel, Angel of Water, has returned back in human form.

"The third angel..."

"Yes. Sachiel, at your service."

A punch that was dodged was an answer regarding the kind of service he offered.

"Quiet stingy, if you ask." Said Kaji, as if that punch reminded him that he had something more important to be awed off.

"Heh. You can't believe how easy it was for science, with Lilith and Adam in our hand to recreate the mini version of those angels for ourselves."

"I can see that. After all, we're 99,89% similar."

"Yeah. You did your study well, Ryoji Kaji. But this form..."

The man coughed, spat blood at the floor.

"You see-urk." He spatted again. "We're not supposed to hold this form that long."He whimpered. "Our AT field is not strong enough to handle the stress we gain from."

"Perhaps it is unwise for us to play god, after all, my friend."

"It is. Unless, or perhaps, if i can get that second piece of Lilith..."

Kaji only shook his head. He knew the negative effect that came from bearing the power of Adam and Lilith in the mind of humanity. Both the half angel, Kaworu Nagisa and Rei Ayanami were the proof of that, for they were forced to play their role while their free will were bent for their role as the bringer of end of the world, had their judgement clouded to give them a false sense of freedom in the process. While Nagisa's role was ironic, made him a captive of fate that had no choice in the end, Ayanami's was a rather nasty example, for her to not realize that for used her role to gain revenge against Gendo Ikari, while still doomed the world to the destruction, as an example that in the end, she was still a doll. Her decision to give the choice to Shinji Ikari, in the process, was a very wicked form of love she showed to him. Yet at the end, she was still a doll, for her mind to not strong enough to resist her given destiny. To take away the Instrumentality away from Gendo Ikari, and gave it to his son, was nothing but a delusion of freedom that was given to Rei Ayanami who lunged for it subconsciously.

Lilith and Adam, were definitely not meant to be used for both angels and humans. Both their mind and their body, in their own way, destroyed the way the poor souls that were given the power from the base of their psyche. For the body, it was a twisted lust for power. For the mind, it was a twisted perception of love.

"Still not want to share, eh?"

The man did not answer.

"Fine. How about that cloth of yours?"

Kaji knew what he meant by the cloth. The belt and the armor that engulfed the wearer in the process. It was a different kind of power, for it being not truly alive like and unlike the EVA series itself, but it still gave the user a power.

Kaji knew the answer.

"Is your mind really lusting for control that much?"

The spike from the miniature Sachiel was his answer.

"Fine, Ryoji Kaji. I'll have your head, if you insist!"

Evaded the strikes from the monster with it's proportion now betrayed the body of the new carrier, Kaji mused what he had in his mind.

"So this is it...the new beginning of the end..."

The man jumped away from the strikes, now hanging from the platfom with high ground on his advantage.

"It's like starting all over again."

* * *

A/N: The story finally got into high gear now! 7th gear, baby! Yeah!

Also, in case you guys felt that Shinji and Rei embraced their new purpose too fast, remember: This is nothing but a fanfic. Also, the power of love did it!

...Okay, that's cheap. But seriously. Love really did something. But, hey! Finally someone truly cared for them instead of acting indifferent or miserable too, right?

Ehm. For my additional few worth of cents, the way Rei and Kaworu think in the series...they had a rather wicked way to solve their problem, and something was not right with the way they act. Shinji and the others were realistic in their problems, even though they were only realistic in one way (read:a cynical one. I'm tired of people claiming Shinji to be an epitome of realism. They're just as worse as claiming he's nothing but a wimp. IMO, for every Shinji Ikari, there are at least one Superman. For every soldier that was forced to do his job, there will be at least one that was willing to do so.), but Kaworu and Rei...there's just something that's not right in their head, and it's not realistic either. For one, Rei would rather face death than pain, and yet she's not suicidal, did her job rather well, and had attachments to the world. And just look at the way she think. When she sacrificed herself, she said she desires Shinji. And yet, her last thought was smiling Gendo. And when she returned, she came to hate his guts despite her memories were very fuzzy to do so. Yeah. Rei series had a weird way of imprinting. And Kaworu...well, he was the only optimistic guy in the series aside from Yui, despite his role made him should be unable to do so. If there's something that's more mindscrewy than End of Evangelion, it's whatever lies on Rei and Kaworu's head. And the angels...were they even knew what they were doing in the first place? Which is the reasons for why i wrote that Lilith and Adam had negative influence to the mind of whoever carried a part of it.

Also, as you notice, the story would be like what happened if Evangelion was less fucked up, some of the cast were not fully fucked up in the head or healed at some points, and Evangelion was on smaller scale instead.

And why i chose 555 instead of the more well received Riders show? Because, let's face it. As incomprehensible the writing could become, what Faiz had as it's strongest point was the fact that the design was one of the best in the series. Especially the Riders. They look cool as hell! So much potential wasted. And the belt order: Faiz=Shinji, Delta=Kaji, and Kaixa=Rei. Unlike Kaixa, Rei's counterpart will had some more functionality and not as demanding. I'm not satisfied by the way that Kaixa had a very huge drawback for the users without any actual advantage, so i would like to work it out a bit. Don't worry. The belt will not changing hands like the way Faiz did. Well, maybe Kaji's would at some points.

Also, spoiler: Asuka will had her own gear!


End file.
